Harry Potter and the Ghost and the darkness
by Har-El
Summary: An entity is set loose that is so deadly it will take more than even Harry's amazing powers to overcome. Note: Chapter 5 is the actual last chapter, so be careful as 6 is an A/N that has spoilers. COMPLETE! Part 4 in my HP/Superman series.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimers notes: I do not own Harry Potter, Superman, or anything affiliated with the novels, comics, or movies. Harry's owned by Scholastic Books, JK Rowling, Warner Brothers, and I'm not sure who all else. Superman/Superboy is also owned by DC comics as well as Warner Brothers, the family of Jerry Siegel, and I'm not sure who all else.

I know that even DC has had trouble with the rights for Superboy off and on for quite a while. I don't know most of the specifics or when it started, but I do know remember the TV show based on Superboy that was good but got cancelled because of the lawsuit. Anyway, the point is that I really hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass.

The title is a reference to the movie _The ghost and the darkness_, which is owned by Paramount, which is loosely based on the book _The man-eaters of Tsavo _which is owned by the family of John Henry Patterson as far as I know.

Check the movie out sometime if you haven't, especially if you like movies loosely based on a true story and even more so if you're a fan of either Val Kilmer or Michael Douglas as it's the only movie they did together to my knowledge. Don't worry, no lions were harmed in the creation of this story. Heh heh.

I've finally decided that the last third of the original Disclaimer won't be revealed here but on a companion piece I'm working on called _Each night, I dream of Krypton_. I'm guessing that anybody that read _Lethal rainbow_ might have been a bit mystified at the reference since I had forgotten to mention the series before then. Sorry about that.

I hope to have Chapter (or Book as I call it there) 1 up soon and as the name suggests, it's going to spotlight stories about Krypton and Kryptonians that have visited Earth. It'll take time, but eventually the final tie in will be revealed. The official spinoff, _The Justice Crusade will also be up as soon as possible._

And while there isn't a Quidditch game here, when I get to the second game (the first will be a little more like the one in the CoS movie with a couple of little twists of my own), as in _Phantom Relic_, Harry's actions during it are loosely based on Seel'vor's _Quantum Leap _serieswith his permission.

Speaking of which, this story Dedicated out to Seel'vor for not only being such an awesome author but letting me borrow Harry's actions during Quidditch games. Keep up the awesome work.

Summary: An entity is set loose that is so deadly it will take more than even Harry's amazing powers to overcome.

Title note: Of the story titles I've come up with so far for this series (this one, _Hidden Heritage_, _Phantom Relic_, _Lethal rainbow_, and that of Year 3), this is my favorite as it references not only two important plot points in this story in a very subtle way but also one of my favorite movies loosely based on a true story.

Author note: Sorry this took a week longer than I promised to get up, but I'm still having quite a bit of technical problems when it comes to getting on the internet. I can't promise when I'll be able to get the rest up (as I said in _Lethal Rainbow_, I'm more than halfway done with Year 2), but it shouldn't be too long.

Anyway, welcome to Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville's Year 2. Who is the "ghost" and what is the "darkness"? Are they related and if so, is it the "Dark One" mentioned at the end of Phantom Relic? Well… you'll find out eventually. Heh heh. Sorry, but I'm not the type to spoil things. Couldn't resist the tease though.

Anyway, you'll quickly notice that I've written in that Harry can see the Thestrals from the first time he really got close enough to notice them. As with just about everything in my stories, this has a point to it that will be revealed later.

I know this will probably cause issues but I'm sticking with the belief that even though he already has pretty extensive knowledge of the magical world in this series, I wouldn't think he'd be able to realize what they are unless it came up, which of course will be in Year 5 as in canon.

And finally, some people might think the Sorting Hat's song is horrible, but I never claimed to be a poet. However, it is to the point. Instead of going by the few in canon, I'm going to make them up in ways that each story required. Anyway, hope you enjoy reading this as I did writing it.

In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places, some that have existed, might have existed, or should have existed and others that can't, couldn't, or shouldn't exist. This is one of them.

Harry Potter and the ghost and the darkness

By Lucas Harrell

Chapter 1

Harry stepped off the train carefully with his friends close behind. The trip had been uneventful as Malfoy either had finally taken the hint about bothering him and his friends or otherwise busy fending off the prank spells.

"Firs' years this way!" Hagrid called out.

"We'll save you a spot inside just in case you get Sorted into Gryffindor," Harry promised Ginny and Luna. The two nodded before the redhead turned and rushed towards Hagrid while the blond skipped along merrily after her friend.

Fred and George lead them to some nearby carriages. Harry noticed a couple of strange horse-like creatures but just shrugged, thinking it was normal. It didn't take long for the carriage to get to the castle and they piled out and headed up the steps and into Hogwarts.

The students made a beeline for the Great Hall to find good seats and about twenty minutes later, the new group of first years came walking in. However, instead of a cheerful if somewhat longwinded song that usually got a few laughs, the Sorting Hat's words chilled everyone to the bone.

_The speaker will soon come forth_

_And the writing's on the wall_

_I send this dire warning_

_To everyone in this Great Hall_

_The darkness seeks to overwhelm us_

_Afraid of the rays of the sun_

_And if the hero stands alone_

_The darkness will have truly won_

_Though many sacrifices may be made_

_You must all stand tall in the end_

_For the darkness comes for your very souls_

_And your will and your hope cannot bend_

_So heed my warning, young gods among men_

_For the balance must be found_

_The heroes must stand united_

_Or humanity's fate will be truly bound_

McGonagall simply stared at the Hat for several minutes before shaking her head and stepping forward, picking it up and grabbing the scroll underneath. All around the Great Hall, many students were shaken by the Hat's words, but none as much as the young Kryptonian Gryffindor.

Luna was up before too long. As McGonagall placed the Hat on her head, she heard it mutter, "Well now, you act like what the Muggles would call a dumb blond, but you hide your true self well behind beliefs in what others call imaginary creatures. Your true friends know you better, but even they don't know all of your secrets, do they?"

'Please don't tell anybody,' Luna begged mentally.

"Don't worry," the Hat said, this time much quieter. "As I told your cousin and many other students with things best kept secrets, my discretion knows no bounds. I will neither tell anyone secrets I've seen nor can I be forced to tell your secrets to anybody."

'Thank… wait, cousin?' Luna thought with a frown, 'But…'

"I know you prefer to know most things instead of just guessing about them, but you will know everything soon enough, young Luna," the Sorting Hat interrupted before raising its voice to be heard by everyone.

"Yes, you are very brave and noble like your friends in Gryffindor, very cunning and ambitious in your own way, and hardworking and loyal, but your intelligence would make you best for… RAVENCLAW!" the Sorting Hat shouted. Harry was one of the loudest cheering for Luna but inwardly he couldn't help but feel disappointed.

'I know she preferred Ravenclaw, but I still wish all of my friends could have been in Gryffindor,' Harry thought, 'At the very least, the rest of us could protect her better from anybody that will bully and take advantage of her because of who she is. Oh well, we'll just have to find a way to do it from a distance.'

Ginny was the last to be called up. Unlike Ron, the Hat mulled it over for several minutes. "Hm, intelligent, brave, hardworking and loyal, and cunning and ambitious," it said, "You could fit in well with any House."

'Please put me in Gryffindor,' Ginny pleaded silently, 'Both of my parents, all of my brothers, and most of my friends are there, though I guess Ravenclaw wouldn't be bad either since Luna and I could watch each other's backs.'

"If that is your wish, then who am I to argue?" the Hat said, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry, Hermione, Neville, and the Weasleys cheered loudly as Ginny stood up with a grin, took off the Hat, and put it on the stool before she headed for the Gryffindor table. The twins scooted over so she could sit between them and Ron as McGonagall rolled the scroll back up and carried it and the stool out of the Great Hall.

Dumbledore stood. "There are of course announcements but they can wait," he said, "For now, tuck in!" At that, the food appeared on the table and the students started digging in especially Ron, much to the disgust of just about everyone around him.

When everybody finished eating, Dumbledore rose again and made the standard round of announcements. "Though I believe at least most of you have probably already heard this," he said, "The world-famous Gilderoy Lockhart has been very gracious in accepting the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts."

The clapping was sparse and mostly centered around the female population of Hogwarts. Harry only clapped because Lockhart had been polite to him and Ginny at their meeting at the book store and was returning the favor. The new professor stood up and bowed before sitting down.

"And on a final note, this year, since several students have been interested in it, we've decided to start up a Duel Club," Dumbledore said, "It will be starting next month so if you're interested, keep an eye on your House bulletin board for details."

Soon after, dinner was over and the Prefects led the Gryffindors to their tower. After him, Ron, and Neville said good night to Hermione and Ginny and they headed up to bed, Harry pulled out the mirror he had gotten for his birthday. He had given one to each of his friends. "Luna," he murmured.

It took a few minutes before Luna appeared in the mirror. "Oh hello, Harry," she said, "I had a feeling I'd be hearing from you. I hope you're not mad at me for not being in Gryffindor."

"Of course not, Luna," Harry replied, "I would have liked all of us to be here, but I know you feel Ravenclaw's better for you." He hesitated. "Look, the reason I'm calling is that I know how cruel other kids can be and I just wanted you to know I'll help you in any way I can if you have any problems with your housemates."

"I know you will and I appreciate it, Harry," Luna said, "But I think I can take care of myself."

"I know you can," Harry said, "All I'm doing is looking out for my friends."

Luna nodded. "Oh one more thing," she said, "Draco Malfoy has a shadow, a rather odd little elf named Dobby. I sat pretty close to him on the Ravenclaw table and heard him gloating about the elf being there to help him quote, 'Put the uppity half-bloods, Mudbloods, and blood traitors in their place'."

"In other words, on their knees kissing the arses of their pureblood zealot masters," Harry interjected, "His dad must not have liked what I said at the end of last year and thinks another bodyguard can make a difference."

Harry sighed. "I know Dobby's been conscripted into helping that idiot and I especially don't want to hurt him, but I can't back down from what I said," he said, "Idiotic inbred pureblood bigots like him are the ones that need to be put in their place and it's time he realizes that."

"I know," Luna said, "Just be careful."

"I will and thanks for the warning," Harry said, "Good night, Luna."

"Good night," Luna said and her face disappeared from the mirror.

"Mirror off," Harry said. 'So I have something else to worry about,' he thought, 'Malfoy won't waste any time in trying to use this to his advantage and when I respond, I'll have to keep a close eye out for Dobby and _Stupefy_ him to keep him out of harm's way.' With that decided, it didn't take long for sleep to overcome him.

The next day, Harry was quick to bring his friends up to date on what Luna had told him. "Don't worry, Harry," Ron said, "We won't let him get anywhere near you and you can show Malfoy who really needs to find out who needs to be put in their place."

"But this… Dobby… is essentially a slave," Hermione said, "He can't help what his masters are ordering him to do. We can't hurt him."

"Don't worry, we'll only _Stupefy_ him," Harry said. Hermione nodded.

The five Gryffindors headed down to the Great Hall to meet up with Luna and wasn't too surprised to find Malfoy and his stooges accosting her. "You think you're untouchable don't you?" he sneered, "Well, Potter's not around to…"

"Well, it seems that the inbreeding has also affected their vision and hearing," Harry said. The 4 newcomers had their wands pointed at the 3 Slytherins.

Suddenly, a pop sounded. "Dobby is very sorry, kind young sir, but Dobby cannot allow…" Dobby was cut off when Hermione sent a stunner at him before he could react and the little elf slumped to the ground.

"As you can see, your new bodyguard isn't going to be of any help," Harry said as he stepped closer to the three Slytherins, his wand at the ready. "Now, I know the pureblood inbreeding has severely dulled your intelligence, so I'll reiterate what I said on the train back to London.

"My friends are all under the protection of the House of Potter," Harry said, "You will not give them anything more than bad looks or I'll make you wish you had never been born and would be well within your vaunted tradition. That now includes Luna and Ginny. Do you understand?" Malfoy mumbled something. "What was that?"

"I understand," Malfoy repeated. Crabbe and Goyle were quick to add their agreement.

"Then get out of my sight," Harry said. Muttering under their breath, the three hurried away. The Kryptonian wizard revived Dobby. "Sorry about that, Dobby. I didn't want to hurt you so I had Hermione stun you since I also couldn't risk you hurting us on their orders."

"Dobby knows," Dobby said, "Dobby is sorry Dobby has to do this, but master is giving Dobby no choice."

"I know and it's fine," Harry said, "But could you do both of us a favor and leave yourself open when you come to his defense? That way we won't have to hurt each other and Malfoy is probably too stupid to realize you're doing it deliberately, so you should be able to keep from being punished as long as you're careful."

Dobby smiled and nodded. "Dobby will try, sir, but if master catches on and gives stricter instructions, there won't be anything I can do," he said. With that, he disappeared. The group of friends walked into the Great Hall after he left.

Snape later said that Malfoy tried whining to him to do something and that he had taken great pleasure in informing him that with the official proclamation of protectorate laws there was nothing he could do and that went double for Dobby, who could be executed for going against it, so having an elven bodyguard was now useless.

Classes went on as usual, seemingly even including Potions. On the surface, Snape seemed to be his usual nasty self, but a subtle wink let Harry know that he was sticking to their agreement.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Lockhart quickly proved just how much of a fraud he was by botching from day one. In Harry's class, he set loose a group of particularly hyperactive Cornish pixies before fleeing and leaving the clean up to him and his friends, who were quick to subdue them.

A month or so later, Harry and his friends were excited as they made their way to the classroom that had been assigned for the Duel Club. It turned out that it was going to be more of a tournament format that would last until the end of the year. If it was popular, it would continue from that year forward.

There used to be a formal tournament years ago, but it had been disbanded after too many complaints over what were probably fake injuries. Harry suspected bigoted pureblood parents to have been behind it after finding out how outmatched they're kids were by Muggle-borns and half-bloods, something to them could not be allowed.

To be fair, the students were split up into their year groups. There were competitions with both individual and teams up to 4. The staff hadn't decided on what the winner or winners would receive, but promised it would be something good.

They had signed up for every combination. For 2 person teams, since Harry and Hermione were generally best at dueling they took Ron and Neville respectively since their dueling styles matched better.

'Ron and Hermione are an especially bad team,' Harry thought with a grin, 'Without me or Neville there to help them focus, they'd bicker so much they'd distract each other and get taken out within seconds.'

For the 3 person team, Harry and Hermione were of course the two main ones while Ron and Neville switched being the third member and being the reserve one as they were more or less equals. The 4 person team was obvious. No matter how they did it, they knew that with Flitwick's training the year before, they had a good chance at winning.

"I wonder who's going to oversee the club," Ron said, "Bet its Flitwick."

"I don't care as long as it's not… oh no," Harry muttered as he noticed who was strolling across the room towards the gathering crowd of students. Professor Flitwick was indeed present as well as Professor Snape, but apparently the new DADA teacher took it upon himself to be the main overseer.

"Welcome to the first meeting of the Duel Club," Lockhart announced as he stepped onto the dueling platform in the middle of the room. "Can everyone see me, can everyone hear me? Good. Now for the rules.

"Rule 1: No potentially permanent harm is to be done in the duels," Lockhart said, "This means no bone-breaking curses, no cutting curses, no _Reducto_s used directly at your opponent, and especially no Unforgivables, though I suppose that's a given, eh?

"Rule 2: There are to be no use of spells against bystanders to distract your opponent," Lockhart continued, "As a gesture of good faith, we will forgo the need for barriers unless it becomes necessary.

"Rule 3: To be fair to anyone without extensive dueling experience outside of their current curricular level, duelers can only use spells from the standard mandatory book lists they've received to this point," Lockhart said, "Though I guess anybody that reads my books thoroughly would have an advantage." All the guys rolled their eyes.

"And finally, there are no other formal rules except to have fun," Lockhart said, "All right then, we'll have some exhibition duels in each age group today and spend the next few days showing the basics, which will also serve as refresher courses for those who have had experience but haven't dueled in a while."

The 1st Year exhibition duel was easy to make as Luna and Ginny were the only ones with any real instructions on dueling thanks to their friends and in the case of the latter brothers so they faced each other. It was close, but the redhead was able to win by using a tripping jinx as a distraction before disarming her friend.

"All right, second years," Lockhart said, "Who here has had any instruction on dueling?" Harry and his friends all raised their hands as did a few others, including Malfoy. "Well then, why don't we stick to the classic Gryffindor vs. Slytherin rivalry and have you and you." He pointed to Harry and Malfoy.

Harry grinned as his friends clapped him on the back as he stepped up to the dueling platform. "Scared, Potter?" Draco sneered as he joined him on the platform.

"You… wish," Harry countered confidently.

"Now then… wait, I know you, don't I?" Lockhart asked as he took a look at Harry's face, "Outside of school I mean."

"Yes sir, I was one of the two you picked to take the picture with you outside _Flourish and Blotts _at your book signinga few months ago, sir," Harry said.

"Oh yes, now I remember," Lockhart said, "Mr. Planter, right?"

"I'm sorry, but it's Potter sir," Harry said. He noticed Snape whispering something in Draco's ear and wished he could hear.

"Oh, my apologies," Lockhart said, "Well then, Mr. Potter and Mr.…"

"Malfoy, sir," Draco interjected.

"Hm, son of Lucius," Lockhart said, "Interesting. Anyway, take your positions." Harry and Draco walked to the appointed positions. "Now bow." The two did so though very quickly. "Now, 1, 2…"

Before Lockhart could get to 3, Draco shouted, "_Flippindo_!"

However, Harry easily dodged the spell and clucked his tongue. "Wow, what wonderful pureblood education," he said, "Even a 3 or 4 month old _Muggle_ child would be able to follow instructions enough to wait until 3."

"SHUT UP!" Draco shouted, as he sent a leg locker hex at Harry.

Harry easily jumped over the spell and faked yawning. "Oh wow, talk about boring," he said, "You'd think that…" He ducked under a stunner. "Him probably having access to a full library and…" He did a spin to avoid disarmed. "Professor Lockhart's wonderful novels would give him more of a repertoire."

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Draco exclaimed, "_SERPENSORTIA_!" At that, a long snake erupted from his wand and landed between them. "GET…" Suddenly, an evil grin spread over the blonde's face. "GET THAT MUDBLOOD!" He pointed at Hermione. The snake started slithering towards her.

'Can't take the risk of that not being a deadly snake,' Harry realized, 'I've got to do something, but what? If I use my powers, everyone will know.' Suddenly, he got the strange and overwhelming urge to talk directly to the snake. "STOP!" he shouted and to his surprise, the snake did as he commanded and turned back.

Somewhere deep within the bowels of the school, a large, thick door stood. As if on cue, the door opened and a shadow came from inside. It did not seem to have an actual shape, though eerie glowing purple eyes shown from within.

'Finally free after all this time,' the shadow thought, 'They thought they could imprison me? HA! After I find a suitable host, I will raise an army to overtake this world and rule.' With that, it began pulsing, as if searching for something… or someone.

In a place not far from where the shadow creature had been set loose, a second being, this one with the shape of a small man though obviously not solid, was seemingly meditating when his eyes flew open. 'The darkness has been set loose once again,' he thought.

The man glanced at a nearby rock that was constantly shifting colors. 'The champions are not ready,' he thought, 'But they will be soon, I can sense it. I will do everything I can to protect them from the darkness' influence, but only time will tell if it'll be enough.' With that, his eyes closed again.

"_Evanesco_!" Snape proclaimed as he shook of the surprise of Harry speaking Parseltongue, sending the snake back to wherever Draco had summoned it.

"Mr. Malfoy, you are not only disqualified from this duel," Lockhart said, "But for such a serious infringement of the school rules, you are banned from the Duel Club and you'll be lucky to still be in school once I report this."

"Oh please," Draco sneered, "Father pretty much owns the Board of Governors so there's a better chance of you getting fired. As for this stupid club, you can have it. Filth like Potter and his Mudblood will only cheat to win anyway, just like every other time." He yelped when a stinging hex hit him squarely on the rear end.

"You and your friends are the only filth I see here, Malfoy," Harry said, putting his wand away. "1st Generation magic users and those of mixed or unknown heritages like myself don't have to cheat if you're any indication.

"If inbred idiots like you learn to actually step up your game instead of hiding behind your mum's skirt, you might come close to standing a chance," Harry finished. Draco just glared before leaving with Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry felt exhausted as he stepped down from the platform and his friends crowded around him. They watched the rest of the exhibition duels, which included the twins tearing their opponents up in a two on two duel when they came to the 4th years.

After the meeting was over, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville stayed behind, putting privacy charms up to make sure no one was around to hear them. "Why didn't you tell us you were a Parseltongue?" Ron asked.

Harry frowned. "What are you on about?"

"You don't know?" Hermione asked, "You were talking to that snake earlier. Thanks by the way, since I'm guessing you called it off."

"You're welcome and no, I guess I didn't realize I was hissing," Harry said, "I had a feeling it was probably venomous and didn't want it to get to you and I just… reacted. Must have been my powers kicking in to my desperate need to stop it." He said that last part softly. "This is bad."

"Tell me about it," Ron said, "There hasn't been a Parselmouth in centuries and since Salazar Slytherin himself was evil and was one of the most known, it's considered to be a Dark art."

"Oh please," Neville said, "Nothing's truly Dark on its own except for the Unforgivables. It simply depends on who uses it and how. Harry definitely wouldn't use this in a Dark way."

"Of course I wouldn't," Harry interjected, "But I do see your point, Ron. The Wizarding world is still just so paranoid after the Muggle-born riots they're looking to point a finger at someone and call them Dark. It could be the Salem witch trials all over again. Let's go see Dumbledore. He'll be able to do something about it."

The others nodded and they all headed towards the Headmaster's office and explained things to him. He was quiet for several minutes before he sighed. "Of all the magical abilities your powers could give you, why did it have to be Parseltongue?" he murmured softly.

Harry nodded. "I can only hope there's a point to it, just as with every other power I've gotten had something to do with the at least situation I attained them," he said, "But in the meantime…"

"In the meantime, I will do my best to divert attention away from your new ability," Dumbledore said, "But unfortunately, it will get out eventually and it wouldn't be hard to find out that you were adopted and that could mean trouble if they try to link you to Salazar Slytherin."

Harry nodded. "I'm sorry I caused so much trouble," he said.

"Never feel you have to apologize for such a selfless act, even if it does end up coming with rather dire consequences," Dumbledore said, "But you do not have to worry about this right now. For now, leave this to me." The four nodded before leaving.

Harry climbed into bed that night with a heart heavy with worry about what might happen. 'But Dumbledore's right,' he said, 'I can only hope that I'm wrong and this whole thing doesn't come back to bite me.' With that, he fell into an uneasy sleep.

To be continued…

Author's footnote: I had wanted to hold off on the Duel Club meeting and the subsequent introduction of the entity until Chapter 2, but decided to have it here because it made more sense than what I had originally planned, a subplot that's more centered around the preparations for the Year's Quidditch season, so I switched them.

And yes, I know Harry didn't actually say open, but that wasn't the point. Since he was first Parseltongue in the school… well, let's just say that he's the first one to know he's a Parselmouth anyway… I figured that no matter what he said, him simply speaking it opening it would make sense.

If enough people don't agree, I'm always willing to rewrite it, but I feel I should warn you doing so would change a subplot that's not only fundamental to this story but also later on. I will explain how at the end of the story. Please just trust me that what I currently have planned is much better than any alternate version I can come up with.

Anyway, the ghost and the darkness have both made an appearance. All I'm saying right now is that the ghost is probably somewhat obvious, but the darkness… well, I'd like to think that's least somewhat less so. At least one subtle clue to their DCU identity and more will be shown in the coming chapters.

Despite what I said before the story (sorry, but it was just a red herring to throw you off the trail of its actual identity), I will say that "The darkness" is _not_ Voldemort, Darkseid, or the "dark one" and it's definitely not Blink (see Seel'Vor's _Harry Potter and the Quantum Leap for that reference_).

And on a final note, I wish I could have ended this chapter on a happy note as I have just about every other chapter and/or story in the series, but I felt it apt given that this is my version of the book where Harry Potter really started going dark. Anyway, until next time, _Pueda el solitario Dios encuentra la paz por ultimo_.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimers: As always, check Chapter 1, especially about Quidditch matches.

Author's notes: It's glad to have a name to the Reviews, Xero. I will respect your need for privacy. Unfortunately, I can't comment on the large part of your Reviews as I don't like to spoil and I'll be honest to say that a reply to them at least could do so. You might notice I made a slight change in the name of the new Slytherin Captain. As always, there is a reason for this, but I can't go into it. Anyway, hope you like this as much as I did writing it.

Harry Potter and the ghost and the darkness

Chapter 2

By Lucas Harrell

Even with a defective overseer, the Duel Club was a hit. With the exception of Malfoy, his stooges, and a few others that were thrown out for cheating, the students loved it. Harry was unstoppable in the 3rd Year category and his friends weren't that shabby either.

Luna and Ginny were also tearing apart in the 1st Year group and were expected to face each other again in the finals while they had practically already won the 2 on 2 matches. In the 4th Year group, the twins stuck with 2 on 2 duels, using their prank spells to distract their opponents before finishing them with stunners or Full-Body Binds.

Dumbledore told Harry that he was getting both owls and Howlers from concerned parents over him speaking Parseltongue, but he was able to placate them so far, though he honestly didn't know how long that would last.

Harry had been noticing that while she considered him and the others friends, Ginny had her own group of friends. Luna was also a part of both groups and the only other 1st Year. They were good friends with two 2nd Years, one from Hufflepuff and one from Ravenclaw, whose names he had yet to catch, though he knew one was a transfer student from America.

To his surprise, a Slytherin 2nd Year Harry vaguely remembered as being named Blaise Zabini rounded out the group, though he apparently had to keep it quiet. 'Not surprising,' he thought, 'He shares a dorm with pureblood idiots like Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle so like Snape, he has to keep up the façade of being a fanatic or a neutral or they'd make his life a living hell.'

A couple of weeks after the incident in the first Duel Club meeting, Wood woke everyone up especially early for practice, starting with a mind-numbing lesson on a strategy he had come up with over the summer. However, Harry was having a hard time focusing on what was being said, but not because of his tiredness. His eyes felt like they were on fire.

"Potter, are you listening?" Wood called out.

"Yeah, you've got… well, most of my attention," Harry said, "I'm sorry, but my eyes are feeling weird, like they're on fire or something. Can I have some water I can put in them or something?" Wood nodded, picked up a nearby cup, and used a low-level _Aguamenti_ to fill it up and handed it to him.

"Thanks," Harry said. Taking off his glasses, he got a few drops on his fingers, tilted his head back, and let the water drip down into his eyes. It took several minutes but the burning sensation went away. "Sorry about that, but it was driving me crazy."

"It's not a problem, but tell me about any problems you might be having beforehand so it doesn't cause a disturbance from now on," Wood said. Harry nodded. After another hour of strategizing, they headed out to the pitch to find the Slytherins team there.

Harry had been the only one that hadn't been surprised to find that the entire team had been replaced starting with the Captain, who seemed friendly enough especially in comparison to his predecessor. He and all of the members seemed better suited for their position than they're predecessors.

However, Harry was surprised to see Draco with them with a large box, though with the spoiled brat air the boy was giving off, he had a good idea what he was doing there and just what was in the box.

Wood went up to the new Slytherin Chaser and Captain, a 6th Year named Corey Bernard. "What are you doing here, Bernard?" he demanded, "I wrote McGonagall weeks ago with my requisitions for practice time."

"Well, Wood, we were able to get special permission for a last-minute tryout," Corey replied, handing Wood a piece of paper. It was written in what was obviously Snape's writing and said that they had permission to train the new Seeker.

"You have a new Seeker as well?" Wood asked, "But you're all new, so why didn't they tryout with the rest of you?"

"Because I was waiting for a delivery," Malfoy interjected. He opened the box at his feet to reveal several new brooms that they all recognized to be _Nimbus_ _2002_s. "Father bought them and donated them to the team."

"In other words, your daddy had to buy your way onto the team," Hermione said as she, Neville, Ron, and Ginny joined them. Harry had noticed them in the stands. "That's just pathetic, though if it's any indication of your 'skills' as Seeker Slytherin will be in dead last this year instead of just 3rd place even with those brooms."

"You don't know what you're talking about, you filthy little Mudblood!" Draco shouted. Harry was about to get his wand out and forcibly remind him of their conversations about his treatment of his friends when his eyes started burning again.

Harry took off his glasses to rub them and suddenly, the box and brooms at Malfoy's feet seemed to explode as they were set on fire. The blond hurriedly tried putting the fire out but it was no good as within seconds, every one of the newly bought brooms were obviously burned beyond repair.

"Oh look," Hermione said, "Apparently they _were_ as defective as the family that bought them."

"SHUT UP, YOU MUDBLOOD!" Malfoy shouted, then pointed at Harry. "YOU DID THIS!"

"How?" Harry asked, "Everyone here saw that I didn't have my wand out. They must have spontaneously combusted." He heard Hermione and a couple of his teammates laugh at that, but everyone else had a puzzled look on their face.

"It's an old Muggle urban legend they made up to explain mysterious fiery deaths," Harry explained before turning to Malfoy, "And don't forget what we've talked about a few months ago concerning my friends and especially about the use of that word." The blond paled and nodded.

Without their new brooms, the Slytherin team decided not to cut in on their practice after all. "I'll be up in a second," Harry told Wood as the Gryffindor team mounted their brooms. The Captain nodded and they pushed off.

Harry turned to Ron. "Call Sirius for me, would you?" he asked, "He's a major shareholder of the Nimbus broom company and knows the CEO so he can restrict access to who buys them. Malfoy's dad might be able to counteract that but it'd take time and I get the feeling he won't bother with something so trivial even for his son." Ron nodded.

With that, Harry took to the air with his teammates. The practice wasn't that different for him, but he enjoyed watching his teammates go through several strategies Wood said was new, though even he honestly couldn't see any difference in his teammates' movements. The twins later told him that they weren't.

After washing up after practice, Harry went out to meet his friends. Ron had a big smile on his face. "Sirius said he'd put not only Malfoy but all of his associates on the restricted list right away," he confirmed, "He's also working on keeping Lucius from counteracting that legally."

Harry laughed. "That will teach them to let someone buying their way onto a team," he said.

A couple of hours later, Harry and his friends were asked to come to Dumbledore's office. Malfoy and both the Slytherin and Gryffindor teams were there as well as Snape and McGonagall. "Oh gee, wonder what this is about," he murmured.

"Ah yes, now that Mr. Potter is here, everyone please take a seat," Dumbledore said, gesturing to chairs opposite him at his desk. Malfoy was in the other and he glared at the group as they did as the Headmaster asked. "Mr. Malfoy has informed us of an incident earlier…"

"You destroyed my brooms!" Malfoy accused, "I demand you pay for them and give me your broom as well. Might not be quite as up to par with the 2002s, but it should make do until I can get a new one."

"You'll get my broom by prying it out of my cold dead hands," Harry said, "Everyone there will attest to the fact that I did not draw my wand or at least not yet anyway. Someone can check it if you want, as long as it's a teacher. You'll find that I haven't cast any flame-based spell."

Harry then took out his wand and placed it on Dumbledore's desk. All three professors tested the wand out with the _Priori Incantatum_ before agreeing that the wand didn't show a trace of any fire spells. "That doesn't mean anything," Malfoy said, "One of his friends could have done it. That Mudblood…"

"That will be 10 points from Slytherin for that slur, Mr. Malfoy!" McGonagall interrupted loudly, "If you were using such language at the time of the incident, I doubt anybody there wouldn't have reacted the same way." She sighed before adding, "However, just for the sake of thoroughness, may we borrow everyone's wands?"

All of the students present except Harry handed over their wands. It took several minutes, but all of them were checked and found that fire spells hadn't been used except where it was called for in class.

"Well, I believe that answers that," McGonagall said, "The brooms appear to have been defective. Be careful when deciding on which one to buy next time, Mr. Malfoy." The blonde nodded as he glared at Harry, who returned it.

A few days later in the Great Hall, Harry noticed Malfoy ranting about something so he called Sirius. "Yeah, that would be him throwing a hissy fit because his dad won't be able to replace the brooms with any Nimbus models anytime soon," he confirmed.

"Turns out I didn't have to get them placed on the banned list since a clause in the lawsuit they filed did it for me," Sirius said, "They can't buy any of the Nimbus broom models until it's settled. Funny thing is that the Malfoys were the ones who actually put the clause in."

Harry laughed. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head and he grinned at his godfather. "You know, something just occurred to me," he said, "How would you like to take this prank one step further?"

Sirius' grin grew wider as his godson explained his idea. "I'll get a hold of Terry and get back to you," he said. Harry nodded as he turned off his mirror.

Another few days later, the Gryffindor team was called down to the pitch, where McGonagall was holding a case. "These have been donated by an anonymous source to all of the Hogwarts Quidditch teams except for Slytherin because of a lawsuit because of the apparently defective 2002 models they received," she said.

McGonagall then opened it to reveal several new limited edition _Nimbus Xtreme_ brooms. They were said to be all-but indestructible and had absolutely none of the flaws the previous models had.

It was all part of the huge prank Harry and Sirius were pulling on the Slytherins and especially the Malfoys. He couldn't wait to see the horror on the brat's face when he finds out that they wouldn't be able to buy new brooms from them until it was settled, which wasn't going to be anytime soon.

McGonagall handed each team member a broom except for Harry, who politely declined. "It might sound weird, but I want to keep flying dad's broom," he said, "But could you keep it in our equipment locker as a backup in case something happens to my broom?"

"Of course," McGonagall said. She walked off to do so and the team went their separate ways.

"No offense, mate, but are you crazy?" Ron asked later when Harry told them about what happened, "You turn down a free _Nimbus Xtreme _for a broom older than you are? You do know most Quidditch players would kill to get a hole of just a 2002 model much less an _Xtreme_, right?"

"Yes, but there's also nothing wrong with my broom despite its age," Harry argued, "It still comes close to outperforming the 2002 models and far outstrips the 2001s. Besides, call me superstitious, but I think it brings me luck since my dad had mostly spotless seasons playing on it just as I have."

"I guess," Ron mumbled and then he grinned, "I just wish I could see Malfoy's face when he sees all of the others playing on _Xtreme_s, especially when he calls his dad and finds out they can't get the brooms themselves."

"I know what you mean," Harry said, "He's going to blow a gasket." Ron and Neville looked puzzled while Hermione laughed. "Non-magical figure of speech Yoli taught me. It means he's going to go bonkers." They nodded and laughed.

Later that day, Harry called Sirius before heading to bed. "Thanks for the brooms, uncle Sirius," he said, "I'll try to send you a memory of the look on Malfoy's face when he sees our brooms as soon as I can."

"Please do," Sirius said, "I'll take any chance I get to knock him or dear old Lucius down a peg now that I can't practically stalk him looking for a reason to arrest him." They both laughed at the thought. They signed off shortly after that and he headed to bed, a grin seemingly permanently plastered on his face.

The next morning at breakfast, Luna made sure her mirror was on, knowing her friends would want to hear what she was hearing. "Father sent me a note saying he's filed a lawsuit against the Nimbus broom company on behalf of us and the families of all the Slytherin players," Draco said.

"Hey, Draco, didn't you say that one of the clauses of the lawsuit was that you wouldn't be able to buy a broom until at least the suit was settled?" Pansy Parkinson asked. Draco must have nodded because she followed up with, "Then what are you going to do for a broom until it's settled?"

"Well, since all the other teams still use the stupid old school brooms, I suppose it'll be all right to stay on the same level until we've won the lawsuit," Draco said, "Besides, by the time it's over, Nimbus will be begging to pay us to fly _Nimbus Xtreme_s."

Luna turned off the connection since she was too close to the Slytherins to be able to talk to her friend about what they had just overheard, but she did smile when she heard Harry laughing loudly from where she was sitting. He quickly lowered the volume of his laughter when he saw people looking at him like he was a madman.

"Draco really thinks he's going get _Nimbus Xtreme_s for free when the lawsuit is over?" Harry asked, "I wish him luck on that. There are only about a 200 of them and not only did Sirius buy all of the brooms available, he knows all of the other owners of the model and they've all agreed not to sell even 1 to Malfoy much less give them away." The others laughed as well.

Not long after that, the first game of the year was being played. As always, it was the classic Gryffindor vs. Slytherin grudge match. As always, Lee Jordan was announcing and McGonagall was watching to try to make sure he wasn't being too biased.

"And here come the Slytherins, who with one exception, aren't a bunch of dirty rotten cheaters for once," Lee called out. McGonagall glared at him. "Sorry, Professor, but it's the truth." With that, he called out the names of the Slytherin players. As always, the team was booed by pretty much everyone in the stadium except for their own section.

"And here come the Gryffindors!" Lee exclaimed to a great ovation. He called out all of the players and their positions, but paused at the end. "Wait a minute… are those _Nimbus_ _Xtreme_s? There's only a couple of hundred of them. It seems as though Potter is the only one without one. I'm guessing he's still using is his father's."

Harry smirked at Malfoy as his head swiveled so fast he was surprised he didn't break his neck and he turned paler than usual. He could see the blonde mouthing something, probably cussing a blue streak. 'Just wait until your precious daddy tells you the full story, dumb arse,' he thought as he climbed up to his usual spot above all of the other players.

The game went on more like a standard game than any of Slytherins past ones. Though the Gryffindors didn't want to flaunt the power of their new brooms out of good sportsmanship, their rivals still had a hard time keeping up.

Harry was enjoying the game and was about to go about his usual antics when suddenly, he had to duck back to avoid a Bludger coming at him. 'That's weird,' he thought, 'The Slytherin Beaters usually zero in on our Chasers until I go after the Snitch, so who…'

Harry broke off in mid-thought as he had to avoid the Bludger again. "What's the matter, Potter?" a voice sneered from below him, making him look down to see Malfoy smirking at him. "Are you afraid of a little rubber ball?"

'He must have something to do with this,' Harry realized, 'Probably had Dobby find some way bewitch it. But let's see well it can track a moving target.' With that, he pointed his broom down and began flying around the pitch at high speeds, with the Bludger trailing behind him the entire way.

Fred noticed the Bludger following Harry and tried knocking it off course, but it stubbornly held on as it followed the young Seeker throughout the stadium. No matter how elaborate a flight path he made, it kept up with him, slowly gaining speed.

Harry looked back up at Malfoy to glare at him but instead, a smile crossed his face when an idea came to him. Making a near 180 turn straight up, he headed directly towards his rival, who got a scared look on his face and ducked unnecessarily, as the dark-haired Seeker pulled up in more than enough time to keep from colliding with him.

Coming to a rest to where Malfoy was directly between him and the Bludger, Harry was glancing back to see his reaction to the Bludger swerved around the blonde when all of a sudden, his eyes once again felt like they were on fire. This time, he was surprised to see the fake pair of glasses actually start to melt before he could snatch them off.

Suddenly, the Bludger seem to self-destruct unfortunately for Malfoy, whose face was right next to it. He apparently lost consciousness and started falling to the ground, much to the horror of everyone present. 'Crap,' Harry thought, 'I don't like Malfoy, but I don't want him to die either.' With that decided, he started diving towards him.

As everyone around them gasped in horror at the events unfolding, the eyes of one of the spectators narrowed at the sudden explosion of the Bludger. 'I knew it was you… Kal-El,' they thought with a smile, 'It's just a matter of time before I reveal myself and I hope you can handle it.'

"Come on, baby," Harry urged his broom softly as he pushed it to its limits.

Harry was barely able to catch Malfoy before he could fall too far, though he knew to slow him down instead of just stopping him suddenly. The broom protested against the sudden weight of another boy but held until they touched down on the ground below. He acted like he was straining to keep hold of the Slytherin.

The two Captains called a mutual timeout before both teams touched down as well and rushed over to the two Seekers. The professors and Madam Pomfrey were also making their way down to them.

"Mr. Potter, that was… amazing," McGonagall said. Harry had bowed his head as that first part had been her usual stern way of talking and his head snapped up at that last part, which was full of awe. "I can't even begin to think of how many points you should get for this, especially given that it's Mr. Malfoy. But… how did you do that?"

"He might be a jerk, but even he doesn't deserve to die such a painful death," Harry said, "As for how, I've always heard of people doing amazing things with adrenaline pumping through their veins and I still have plenty of it.

"Oh and you might want to gather the bits of that Bludger, professor," Harry pointed out, "It's obvious it had been tampered with and we don't want any evidence to 'mysteriously' disappear after all."

McGonagall nodded. "_Accio_ destroyed Bludger!" she called out after raising her wand. With that, the strips of leather floating around soared down to settle into her hand. "We will indeed investigate this further."

"Just one more thing," Harry said and gestured McGonagall to lean down and whispered, "I have a feeling you'll find the magical signature of an elf as being the source of the hexing because Malfoy's had one following him around to help him prove pureblood superiority. Don't punish the elf for doing something they don't have a choice about."

"I'll… take that under advisement," McGonagall replied as she straightened and walked off with the destroyed Bludger.

Harry turned to see Madam Pomfrey finishing her exam. "He seems to have just been knocked unconscious by being caught so close to the blast," she said, getting her wand out and pointing it at Malfoy. "_Enervate_!"

Draco woke with a start and sat up. "What happened?" he asked.

"I saved your life, that's what," Harry said, "Think about that the next time you have your elf try to kill me."

"Dobby would never kill you," a now somewhat familiar wheezy voice said as said elf appeared with a "crack", "Masters just ordered Dobby to…"

"Dobby, shut up!" Malfoy hissed and Dobby cut himself off with a choking sound.

"Tell you what," Harry said, "I think we both know what professor McGonagall will find when she does a full examination of that Bludger and we also both know that you owe me a life debt, but I think I can at least forego the latter if you'll be willing to release Dobby and with him under my employ, you might not be held responsible for his actions."

"I'll have to talk to my father as he's the Head of Malfoy House," Draco said.

Harry nodded. "Give me his answer as soon as you can," he said, "After all, the sooner you turn him over to me, the sooner you can avoid getting in trouble for his actions. You're welcome for saving your worthless inbred hide, by the way."

"This changes nothing between us," Draco said before turning and walking back to his broom.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Harry said with a grin as he went to his.

Since Draco was given a clean bill of health, the game was back on. Slytherin tried their best, but were completely shut out at 250-0. Of course, a party was held in Gryffindor tower with the team as the guests of honor.

Harry spent the next day getting a handle on his new powers. After practicing for quite a while, he was able to focus the intensity to make small inscriptions like he was simply writing it with a quill.

Two days later, Draco approached Harry outside the Great Hall with Dobby in tow. "Extend your hand, Potter," he said. Harry did so and was surprised when he shook it. "I, Draco Malfoy, with the expressed permission of the Head of my family, offer you our House Elf, Dobby. Do you accept?"

"Yes," Harry said. Their hands glowed for a moment as their magics sealed the deal.

Harry was a little surprised when after he let go of his hand, Draco knelt down to Dobby's level. "I'm sorry for anything I might have said or done recently," he said, "You practically raised me and I haven't treated you much better than father."

"Young Master Draco has nothing to apologize for," Dobby said, "Dobby knows that you was just trying to get master Lucius' approval." The two then surprised everyone present by hugging before Draco broke away, straightened, and turned to Harry, who was only a little surprised to see him a bit teary eyed.

"Take care of him, Potter," Draco said, "As you heard, mother and father were always too busy to bother growing up and Dobby practically raised me. The good thing about losing him to you is that as much as I can't stand you, I also know he'll be treated well."

"I swear I'll treat him well," Harry promised. Draco nodded before walking off. "Now, Dobby, what shall we do with you?"

"Whatever Master Harry wishes," Dobby said with a bow.

"All right, first off, just call me Harry," Harry said, "Second off, all of that formality aside, I can allow you a grace period of up to a year before you come under my employ, right?" Dobby nodded. "Then I want you to go out and enjoy yourself. Whenever you feel you're ready along those lines, come to my family farm and we'll figure out what to do then."

"Thank you, just Harry," Dobby said with a small grin at the joke. Harry laughed and ruffled what little hair the little guy had before he popped away, then walked into the Great Hall with his friends to eat.

Ginny was watching as Harry and his friends from a dark alcove. 'I must make him see that I am his future,' she mused, 'Even if she does realize her feeling for him and tells him, Granger won't take him from me.'

Suddenly, Ginny's eyes took on a purplish glow, shadows seemed to cover part of her face, and a small, half-formed object appeared on her forehead. 'When I have everything in place, he will be mine, heart, body, and soul,' she thought. Her eyes went back to normal before she walked over and entered the Great Hall.

To be continued…

Author's note: Ooh, what a dark place to leave it yet again, huh? Well, as always, I go where my imagination takes me when it comes to writing. And for those who hate them, I don't think it's an actual cliffhanger, as that mostly suggests that the next chapter will pick up immediately afterwards.

As you might have guessed, there are 2 more clues towards the identity DC Comics version of the villain of this story… the "darkness" if you will… in the change that overtook Ginny. Sorry I didn't show the entity actually possessing her, but we didn't see Riddle doing it in the book until the end after all, right?

Anyway, all I can say about the entity is that even though they're a mostly minor villain… they had a major storyline years ago and one out or about to be, but nothing really major in-between in comparison to those like Darkseid, Lex Luthor, or even the Joker… anybody who has somewhat thorough knowledge of the DCU probably knows who it is already.

Anyway, great prank Harry and Sirius pulled, huh? It just came to me when I was writing the scene where the _Nimbus_ _2002_s were introduced and destroyed shortly thereafter, which of course was all part of Harry attaining his heat vision.

And calling the brooms Lucius bought _Nimbus 2002_s (and the proceeding model the 2001) isn't a typo. Since the series takes place in now 2002 instead of 1992, I figured it would make more sense that the models take their name from the year they were made except for the _Xtreme_s, so I adjusted the names accordingly.

Would you believe the scene where Harry uses heat vision to destroy the Nimbus _2002_s and the one where he destroyed Dobby's rogue Bludger was one of the very first ideas I came up with for this story? Both events just made more sense than any other part in his years at Hogwarts.

And you can consider the _Nimbus Xtreme_ an earlier introduced replacement for the Firebolt. Harry will probably never actually use one though. I have something much different planned for him that will be spotlighted in the summer between Years 2 and 3.

As for the mysterious figure that apparently not only knows that Harry's Kryptonian but his name… while I won't spoil anything I also won't lie about them. Sorry I kind of lied about saying that they have something to do with the shard of Kryptonian metal from _Lethal rainbow_ but at the time that hadn't been a lie.

However, the person doesn't have to actually be Kryptonian but instead be any number of DC characters with access to at least some kind of Kryptonian technology like Braniac, Eradicator, or even the Martian Manhunter (if he's not then, he will be introduced eventually and probably act like the Phil Morris version from _Smallville_) just to name a few.

That being said, however, I will say that the figure has nothing to do with the ghost or the darkness or at least not directly, but instead part of a larger subplot that's also important to both this story and the series as a whole.

Anyway, unlike _Phantom Relic_, where I left most things deliberately vague in an effort to keep from giving away too much of the overall series, everything will be answered within this largely self-contained story, so please just bear with me. Well, except a few subplots, mostly surrounding the next chapter. More details on that in said chapter. Another will be at the end. Trust me when I say that it's going to be a wild ride getting to the answers and one you'll probably enjoy if you've liked the series so far.

And on a final note, now you know why I introduced the mirrors earlier and in such quantities. Expect them to be eavesdropping on Malfoy and others regularly. Until next time, _Pueda el solitario Dios encuentra la paz por ultimo_.


	3. Chapter 3

See Chapter 1 for Disclaimers.

Author note: Wow, this story is coming along really well. Even when I was writing up a somewhat detailed summary…which I've long since started to ignore as it was though it was only a guideline anyway to try to help me get out of this writing funk I've been in… I didn't think it would turn out the way this has so far.

I'm getting around to explaining about what Lily's been doing for work most of the time since graduating Hogwarts. I'm a little surprised no one's brought this up since it's so unlikely she'd just sit around the Potter farm as the dutiful housewife and mother or even doing her part in the upkeep of the farm.

It will probably be obvious soon that this Chapter is mostly about setting up the main plot and as such, it will most revolve around the entity possessing Ginny and showing glimpses at their plan as they start setting up for their ultimate endgame.

All I can say is that her little study group will be part of a much bigger picture, just not right away. It's one of the few exceptions to everything being mentioned at the end of the Year that I mentioned in Chapter 2. This will probably seem rushed, but as always, I keep most subplots in one chapter except those that are better off left dangling for now.

I've been thinking about what you asked, Xero, and while this Superman is just like most others and has something of a weakness to magic (nothing major, it just affects him as it does every human making it as deadly as Kryptonite) and I consider a basilisk's glare and venom magical, the biting itself is strictly physical and wouldn't penetrate his skin while he's powered up. Anyway, hope you enjoy reading this as I did writing it.

Harry Potter and the ghost and the darkness

By Lucas Harrell

Chapter 3

It was just after Halloween a couple of months later when a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ came flying in, announcing a major changes in the Wizarding world in relation to Muggle-borns and gave the credit to James Potter and the proxy votes of Sirius Black.

The article told about them starting with repealing laws that were holding Muggle-borns down, such as the one forbidding them from owning their own magical businesses and the one that had forbade workshops for prospective students to get up to speed before they started Hogwarts.

"Bet mum's ecstatic to hear about that," Harry said, "She used to run a pre-school tutoring program out of the house and later the farm to help all prospective students to get up to speed the summer before starting their 1st year. I did so well in 1st year because I've sat in on pretty much all of them growing up."

"What about the Underage restrictions?" Neville asked.

"They actually don't start applying when they actually start Hogwarts," Hermione said, "Otherwise, you would have gotten a letter with every little bout of accidental magic and probably expelled from Hogwarts or worse before you even start." The others nodded. "But you said she used to run one. What happened to it?"

"Well, certain Pureblood bigots didn't like that their idiot children didn't have a leg up, so they used her status as a 1st Gen magic user to get it shut down a few years ago," Harry said with a disgusted shake of his head, "At least now she can probably do something formal without those stupid laws to hold her back."

The article also mentioned that Aurors were now required by law to investigate all claims of Muggle-borns when it came to possible assault by pureblood, with clauses that included a watchful eye out for bribery.

Harry felt the mirror in his pocket vibrate and he pulled it out. He started to say something before he noticed it was Luna in eavesdropping mode. "Look at that," Draco said. A rustling of paper confirmed that he was talking about the newspaper article.

"Those blood traitors are trying to get equal rights for their precious Mudbloods," Draco continued and Harry could tell he was sneering, "Father told me he was going to quash this rubbish, but also said we should be careful until he does. Hopefully he'll be able to finally get rid of the filth contaminating this farce they call a school."

"Only way Lucius could really do that would be by pulling Draco out of school," Harry muttered after Luna turned off her mirror when Draco started talking about something else. The others nodded.

Hufflepuff ended up getting creamed by Ravenclaw again, though this time it was by a pretty small margin thanks to the new brooms both teams had. Harry had made sure to get a good look at Malfoy's face as he started realizing just how far the prank had spread.

Just after dark, a young dark-haired 2nd year Ravenclaw named Jessica McGinnis was walking down the corridor towards the common room when she heard a voice calling, "HEY, JESSICA!" She turned to see Ginny walking up to her.

"What's up, Gin?" Jessica asked. She was American but her mother was English that had gone to Hogwarts and wanted her to go as well. Though in separate years, they were only born a couple of months apart and became friends over a mutual loathing of Snape along with a couple of others.

"I just wonder if… WHAT'S THAT?" Ginny yelled, pointing behind her friend. Jessica turned to where she was pointing, which opened her up to a quiet stunner. "Stupid little girl… I cannot believe you fell for a trick even older than I am," she muttered as her eyes took on a purple hue as she kneeled down and started running her wand over the girl.

"Your blood holds magnificent power," Ginny said, "And because of that and as thanks for being one of this vessel's first true friends, you are to have the first of my generals who will command the army I will amass when the time comes. I feel you fighting my power, but I will have you in the end."

Speaking in a strange language, Ginny placed an object on her friend's forehead and it started glowing purple for a few seconds before disappearing. The purple haze disappeared from her eyes and she suddenly started screaming her head off.

Within minutes, the staff was called into the corridor, where McGonagall was consoling a sobbing Ginny. "I just came seeing if I could catch Jessica before she turned in and found her like that," she explained, "I thought she was just playing around but nothing I did could rouse her. Is she all right?"

"Miss McGinnis has fallen into a comatose state," Madam Pomfrey said.

"Do you know how?" Flitwick asked. As her Head of House, he had to have answers to send to Jessica's parents.

"I honestly don't have a clue," Pomfrey replied, "All of my scans are telling me that she's just fine physically. Whatever happened to her, it seems to have affected her mentally or maybe magically. Other than that, I don't know what's happening to her. Can I take her to the Hospital Wing?"

"Of course Poppy," Dumbledore said, "Please keep me apprised and thank you."

"I think we're done here for now, so if you'll excuse me, I'll escort Miss Weasley back to her common room," McGonagall interjected. The others nodded and she led the young redhead towards Gryffindor tower.

The next day, the reactions of the students to the attacks was varied. Most were horrified at a fellow student being put into a coma, but one in particular was ecstatic. "That Yank got what was coming to her," Draco stated loudly as he walked down a hallway, "It shows that stupid Americans like her…"

Draco was cut off as a 2nd Year Hufflepuff stepped up and slugged him, knocking him flat on his ass. Crabbe and Goyle were surprised at first but eventually reacted by trying to grab him but he took them out with a quick jumping split kick before they could take try to lay a hand on him.

"She may be American, but Jessica McGinnis is a friend of mine and I won't hear you tarnish her name with your inbred idiocy," the young man said, glaring down at Draco as he pointed his wand at him. "Next time you even utter her name in any negative way, you'll wish I had just simply punched you again, are we clear?"

"Crystal," Draco muttered with a glare of his own.

The Hufflepuff felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Neville, and Luna grinning at him. "That was bloody brilliant," Ron said, "Where did you learn that?"

"Jess knows a martial arts instructor who taught me over the summer," the Hufflepuff answered and extended his hand, "John Conley. And I believe you're Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom."

"So, Jessica McGinnis is… what, your girlfriend?"

"Oh no, nothing like that," John said, "We're just good friends that have a study group with mutual ones."

"Wait a minute," Harry said, "Mutual friends. Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood wouldn't be two of those mutual friends, would they?" He was glad to finally put names with the faces of the two in Ginny's group of friends that he hadn't known.

"Yeah, Ginny and Luna are Jess' best friends," John said, "Jess, myself, and… well, another mutual friend… are in our 2nd Year so we've been helping them with spells they've had trouble with. That's kind of how it started, really."

Harry nodded. "I'm glad they've had such good friends then," he said. A sudden thought occurred to him. "Look, I get the feeling that this isn't a coincidence. All of you might be also getting targeted. Be careful."

"I will and thanks for the warning," John said.

Harry and his friends started to leave as Malfoy predictably returned with Snape. "You dare hit one of my students?" the Potions professor sneered.

"You bet I dare," John said, "The idiot thought that just because he was a pureblood that he could talk down about Jessica when she's not here to defend herself, so I thought I'd prove him wrong by shutting that big mouth of his in her honor. And as I promised him, he'll get more of the same whenever he does it again."

"That will be 30 points from Hufflepuff and detention… what is your name?" Snape asked.

"John Ross Conley," John said.

Snape's eyebrows lifted at that. "A Conley?" he said, "You belong to the Conley bloodline and you decided to assault another pureblood over some American that has no business being here?"

"I'm a half-blood as my mother was a Muggle," John replied, "So I could care less about blood status. And Jess may or may not be a pureblood since she was adopted, but she deserves to be here more than those 3 or me.

"Speaking of which, even though she's American, she lives with us while here in England," John continued, "So that places her under the protection of my father's bloodline, so I'm well within my rights to do so by law."

Snape almost seemed to smile at that but only for a second before the sneer reappeared on his face. "I will check into this, but the punishments stand," he said, then glanced knowingly over to Harry for a second. "Regardless of your father's protection of Miss McGinnis, we can't have students _physically_ assaulting each other."

John nodded as he tried to keep from grinning, as did Harry. 'I can't believe it,' he said, 'Mum must be a good influence on Snape if he's actually hinting to us and John to use pranks on Malfoy instead of beating up on him.'

As always, the hint obviously went over the heads of the three Slytherin students. "I understand, sir, but I won't apologize for my actions," he replied.

"Nor do you have to according to protectorate laws," Snape said, "You will see me after you finish your classes tomorrow for your detention." John nodded and the Potions professor walked away. Malfoy gave the Hufflepuff a glare before following him.

"What an arse," Ron muttered as soon as he was sure Snape was out of hearing distance.

"Actually, that was brilliant of him," Hermione said, "Didn't you get the implication he was making? We can't _physically_ assault Malfoy… but he didn't actually say anything about tormenting him with pranks and stay within the school rules."

"I'm the first to admit I'm not a great prankster, but I think I will do my part in Jessica's honor, so could you tell me some good ones?" John asked.

"Actually, I can do you one better," Harry said. He took out a small notebook and handed it to John. "It's every prank we know and even a few we've yet to put into effect, including several time-release spells that have made his holidays hell so far.

"It's enchanted to make anybody who doesn't know the password," Harry said, "Simply tap it and say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good' and to undo the enchantment, tap it again and say, 'Mischief managed.' I'll need it back after you're done copying it, though. It belongs to my dad and is one of a kind."

"I should be able get it back to you by Sunday or at the latest Monday," John promised, "Jess said she loved to play pranks back in the US. I think it's only fitting I play them in her stead against that idiot, so I really appreciate this, especially if I have friends to back me up."

"Any friends of Ginny's and Luna's are friends of mine so of course you do," Harry said. They shook hands again before the Hufflepuff left.

Later that day, John sent a message to the final, secret member of their study group and Blaise joined him in the empty classroom. "I'm guessing you heard what happened to Jess," the Hufflepuff said.

Blaise nodded. "I've also had to hear Malfoy whining constantly about your reaction to what he thought about it," he said with a grin, "He tried to get his father to do something about it, but even dear old Lucius knows even he can't bribe enough people to get around the protectorate laws you invoked."

John laughed. "Bet he loved that," he said, "Look, the reason I called you here was to tell you that someone I ran into after that incident pointed out that there's a good possibility you and I could be the next targets, so watch your back, all right?"

"The Zabinis are neutral in our views of blood purity," Blaise pointed out, "So I always have to watch my back, especially since our little study group got together. But thanks for the warning and you should watch out too. Malfoy won't let this go easily. He'll look for every chance to get even."

"Oh, he can try," John said, "I'll kick his butt six ways to Sunday before he can hit the floor and the same with Crabbe and Goyle if they try to interfere. And the best thing is that they wouldn't be able to do anything about it, since it would fall under self-defense as well as my job as Jess' regent. Thanks for the warning."

Blaise nodded. "I'll try to get to the Hospital Wing to see if tonight Pomfrey will let me visit Jess for a while," he promised, extending a hand. "See you there?"

"Of course," John said, shaking Blaise's hand.

With that, the two left the room, with Blaise heading out first and John leaving a few minutes later to. Neither noticed a pair of glowing purple eyes watched them and Ginny stepped out of a nearby dark alcove, a grin widening across her face.

Blaise was coming out of Slytherin common room and was heading towards the Hospital Wing when he was stunned from behind. Ginny stepped out into the hallway, her eyes glowing. "And now to see why you feel so familiar," she muttered as she knelt down and ran her wand over the Slytherin's body.

Suddenly, Ginny's eyes widened. "Th-That shouldn't be possible," the entity murmured, "How… oh, of course. He must have had a second child, a daughter if I had to guess since his name's been lost to history. That would explain a lot. Well then, you will finally honor your family line soon."

With that, the entity had Ginny kneel down and place her hand on Blaise's head. She muttered for several seconds and her hand glowed. When it stopped, she removed her hand to reveal a small purple object on his forehead that soon disappeared.

Ginny straightened. 'Best not to be caught close to a second body so soon,' the entity thought as it sent her back to Gryffindor tower, 'While the faculty is a bunch of idiots, even they would put the pieces together and it's not time for my plans to be revealed yet. But soon, very soon, there won't be anything they can do about it.' She chuckled as she kept walking.

John was absolutely speechless as he stepped into the Hospital Wing and found two of his best friends comatose. 'Who's doing this?' he thought, 'And why just us? As far as I know, there's not really anything special about us.'

"I'm sorry, young man, but I can't allow visitors right now," Madam Pomfrey said, "Though I can tell that it couldn't have been you, since we don't know who did this, I can't run the risk of whoever it was that assaulted them potentially getting in to try and finish the job."

"I understand that, but… can I just have a few minutes with them?" John asked, "They're friends of mine and I…" He broke off to swallow the lump in his throat and blinked back the tears. "I can't stand to see them like this."

Madam Pomfrey sighed and nodded. "Very well, but I will have to oversee it," she said, "However, I will give you some privacy." She motioned over to desk on the other side of the room.

John nodded. "Thanks," he said. Madam Pomfrey nodded and walked off as he turned back to Jessica and turned to look at Blaise. "I swear I will not rest until I know who did this and if it's Malfoy, he'll wish like the rest of us that he had never even been born."

With that promise, John left and headed for the Great Hall and luckily caught Harry just about to head in. "I need your help," he said softly, "Blaise has been attacked as well and I need to find out if Malfoy had anything to do with it and squeeze a confession from him that even his father's money won't be able to bypass, but I don't know how."

"I think I know a way," Hermione said, "But it might take a few days since I've got to check on a few things, so I'll find a way to contact you when I'm done with preparations." John nodded before heading toward the Hufflepuff table.

Not long after lunch, Hermione used her mirror to call Sirius and explained the situation. "Well, I just finished 3 cauldrons full the other night," he said, "I'll send some right away. How much do you need?"

"You might want to send the contents of one of those cauldrons over in some kind of containers," Hermione said, "While Harry's out for obvious reasons, I don't know exactly how many of us will be going on the mission and we might need a lot."

"You got it," Sirius said, "I'll get it sent over to James and he should have it to you within a couple of days."

"Thanks, Sirius," Hermione said. After talking to her mum, she turned off her mirror and left her dorm room with a huge grin on her face.

When a small package came flying in during lunch a few days later, Hermione got up from the table and pretending to have to leave to use the loo, walked right past John, and pretended to drop something. "Plan's a go," she whispered. He nodded and she straightened and walked back.

Later that day, John met up with the group outside Gryffindor tower and they moved to the nearest empty classroom. Hermione opened up the package she had received to reveal 4 good-sized flasks. "Polyjuice potion," she explained simply, "All we have to do is add hair and we'll be able to become different people until it wears off.

"Each of these flasks has up to about a day's full in them, though we shouldn't need that much," Hermione continued, "Only get about half a mouthful each time if you don't want to stay as them for more than an hour at a time after we leave." Everyone nodded as they took them from her.

"Oh Hermione, you're as brilliant as always," Harry said, "But how did you get it? I know for a fact that you haven't been spending the last month brewing it in some old unused Loo with some weird ghost watching over your shoulder or something."

Hermione frowned but shook her head. "Oh no, I called Sirius the other day and he sent some to your dad who sent it directly here," she explained, "We just need the hairs of 4 Slytherins and we can sneak right in under Professor Snape's nose."

"Too bad it eventually becomes stagnant after adding the DNA," John said, "It might be useful it for something else later. But there are 5 of us here, so why did he only send you 4 flasks for us to use?"

"I'm actually one of those that has an allergic reaction to Polyjuice," Harry explained. This was what his parents had come up with to explain why he couldn't use potions keyed to human DNA such as Polyjuice. "Besides, one of us should stay here to make sure they don't wake up and no offense, John, but I'm probably the best choice."

John nodded. "That makes sense," he said, "So, who should we grab? Crabbe and Goyle are a given. He'll tell them just about anything. We should probably have Hermione be Pansy Parkinson for the same reason since she's his betrothed." He grinned when Hermione made a face at the thought of being that pug-faced Slytherin.

"What about the 4th person?" Ron asked.

"Hm, maybe we should grab a member of the Quidditch team," Harry said, "He probably hasn't bothered to get to know them that well since Lucius bought his way onto the team, but the 4th member of our team could simply hang around near us in the common room as back-up in case something goes wrong."

"That sounds like something I'm better suited for," Neville said quietly.

"All right, no problem," John decided, "Ron will be Crabbe and I'll be Goyle then."

"We'll probably have to stun Parkinson as well as the Quidditch player because they're both pretty smart and wouldn't fall for traps easily, but with Crabbe and Goyle…" Hermione said as held out a bakery container that held several cupcakes. "These have a mild sleeping draught in them.

"Just make sure they find them when their alone and they're so stupid, they'd eat them without thinking about it," Hermione said, "Harry, you might have to force feed them both more to make sure they'll be out long enough for this to work as well making sure Pansy and the other one don't wake up."

"Not a problem," Harry said, "It's Friday, so we should probably do this tomorrow so we'll have plenty of time to do it. We'll 'borrow' the robes from each of the Slytherins as we capture them." The others nodded.

The next day, the plan was sprung. Crabbe and Goyle were the first to be grabbed. As Hermione had predicted, they hadn't wasted any time in scarfing down two of the drugged cupcakes. They were pulled into a nearby empty classroom.  
The Slytherin Quidditch player they picked, Chaser Warwick Troyer, was a little harder, but they were able to stun him without him seeing their faces and he joined Crabbe and Goyle in the empty classroom.

Pansy was arguably the hardest as she almost never left Malfoy's side, but they got their chance for Hermione to ambush her when she went into the loo without an escort, stunning her before she noticed she wasn't alone. They headed back to the empty classroom and put Pansy next to the rest of her House mates.

They carefully extracted several hairs from each of the Slytherins and added one of each to their assigned vial, then took the robes off of all of the captured Slytherins and put them on. They drank some of their Polyjuice and after several minutes of discomfort, they transformed into the Slytherins and set out to put their plan in action.

It didn't take long for them find Malfoy and to Hermione's barely disguised disgust, he wasted no time in slinging an arm around her waist. "Come on guys," he said cheerfully, "Cheer up. This is a time to celebrate. That stupid Yank McGinnis was shown she doesn't belong here and Zabini learned you can't sit on the fence forever."

John had to do several calming breathing exercises before he grinned at Malfoy. "Yeah, right, boss," he said. He had heard Goyle call him that in the past and was glad that he was able to mimic the Slytherin's voice well enough to fool him. "So, any ideas on who's next?"

"Maybe whoever it is will go after a Muggle-born next," Malfoy said, "Yeah they do need to teach Granger a lesson in pureblood dominance." He frowned as he noticed Ron obviously trying not to punch him. "Crabbe, are you okay?"

"Yeah, uh, stomach ache," Ron grunted. He didn't quite have the self-control John usually did, so they had come up with this excuse whenever he was barely able to keep his temper under control.

Hermione shot Ron a look as she knew she had to run interference for him. "So, Draco, about these attacks," she purred as she rubbed the back of Malfoy's neck proactively, "You wouldn't know anything about them, would you? I mean, you'd tell _me_ if you did, right?"

"No idea for sure, but I bet it's the fabled Heir of Slytherin," Malfoy said.

John didn't know why, but that send chills up his spine. "The Heir of Slytherin?" he asked.

"Oh come on, Goyle," Malfoy said, "You know the old tale. The Heir of Slytherin is supposed to return from exile and free the school of the scum infesting it like McGinnis or Mudbloods like Granger. While I hate that a pureblood was one of the first to fall, it's the fault of Blaise's family for not being like ours." John nodded.

Even though it was already obvious that he had nothing to with the attacks, they talked to Draco a while and Ron was ecstatic to hear him reveal a small stockpile of poisons and other dark objects in a hidden cupboard in their drawing room. 'Can't wait to tell dad,' he thought, 'He's wanted to bust the Malfoys for years.'

Unfortunately, it wasn't long after that revelation that Neville notice that they were starting to run out of Polyjuice potion and that the time of the last dose was almost up. "Boy, look at the time," he called loudly as he headed for the entry of the common room, "I promised my girl I'd meet her and give her something special."

Ron took the hint and doubled over and doubled over with faked groans of agony. "I'd better get him to the Hospital Wing," John said.

"We'll come with you," Draco said.

"No, Draco dear, you need your rest," Hermione interjected, "Goyle and I will help Crabbe there. You just stay here and relax." Malfoy nodded and the three headed out of the common room.

Once they got out of the portrait hole, they broke out in a run for the empty classroom Harry was at. They barely made it there in time before the time limit of the Polyjuice ran out, turning them back into their normal selves.

"So, did you get anything good?" Harry asked.

"Sort of, but not what we were expecting," John said, "Malfoy gloated over Jess and even Blaise for being victims, but he has no idea except that he's thinking that it's going to be some mythical 'Heir of Slytherin' nonsense he kept spouting off about."

"As he said, it's an old fable loosely based on a prophecy about the descendants of all the Founders," Hermione interjected, "Though leave it up to inbred idiots like him to ignore all but Slytherin and think it means only purebloods will be left."

"The actual prophecy is said to go something like this," Hermione said, "'Just before the world suffers the crimson skies, the heirs of the Founders will return to claim their birthright and that while war, famine, pestilence, and death will ride with them, in the end, they will bring true peace to the world'."

"War, famine… wait a minute," Harry said, "You're saying that be the Heirs are supposed to be the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse from non-magical religious texts? But those are supposed to be evil, right? How are they going to bring peace?"

Hermione shrugged. "I have no idea," she said, "It's just an old legend."

"Malfoy said something about the Heir of Slytherin being exiled," John said.

"That could mean any number of things," Hermione pointed out, "It doesn't even have to literally mean the heir themselves being exiled. It could mean the bloodline of Salazar Slytherin could be coming back from being physically exiled from history or it could mean… well, as I said, anything."

John nodded. "Well, I want to go check out a few things, so I'll see you guys around," he said. The others nodded and after putting the robes back on the Slytherins, they headed for the door, sending out two "_Enervate_" spells to waken Pansy and Warwick as they stepped over the threshold. Once outside, they went their separate ways.

John was heading back to Hufflepuff tower that night with a grin on his face. He had been in the library since the Polyjuice incident and had found out something very interesting. 'I knew it,' he thought, 'It would explain just about everything, including why…'

"Hey, John," a voice called. John turned and smiled when Ginny joined him in the hallway. "What's so funny?"

"You'll never believe what I found in the library, Gin," John answered, "While I still don't know who's doing this, I was doing some research in the library and I think I know why whoever it is has been targeting us. I thought it was just a coincidence at first, but…"

"I know," Ginny interjected.

"We… wait a minute, you know?" John asked, "What do you mean you know?"

"Take your pick," Ginny said, "I know why the attacks are happening, I know who else is going to be attacked, and yes, I even know who's behind it all." As if giving John a clue, her eyes took on a purple hue.

John backed away from the redhead. "No, that-that's impossible," he said, "How could it be you that attacked Jess and Blaise? You're our friend."

"Ginny Weasley might be your friend, but I'm not," the entity possessing Ginny pointed out with a feral grin as it got out her wand.

Instead of getting out his wand right away, John stepped forward and grabbed Ginny's hand. They struggled for several minutes before the redhead broke away, though she dropped the wand. "I'm sorry about this, Ginny," the Hufflepuff said as he stepped away from her, "But there's no way in hell I'm…"

Suddenly, John was hit by a stunner in the back and Jessica McGinnis stepped out of the shadows, her eyes glowing purple and a blank expression on her face. The object she had placed on her forehead was back and fully-formed as a purplish diamond-shaped jewel.

"Ah good, you've finally submitted to my power," Ginny said. The Ravenclaw nodded. "It's just a matter of time before Zabini does as well, so I'd better mark this one and get it started with him."

With that, Ginny knelt down and placed her hand over John's forehead and muttered something. When she took her hand away, a small object was on his forehead but quickly vanished as if it had never been there.

'I will soon have my generals and I will use them to bring the world to its knees, as every man, woman, and magical being shall fall under the shadow of the almighty ECLIPSO!' the entity thought as it began cackling madly.

To be continued…

Author note: I'm guessing there are a lot of you readers that have at least some knowledge of the Eclipso character and figured out that the main antagonist was him just going by the clue at the end of Chapter 2. I guess it doesn't help that calling him "the darkness", huh?

With that being said, knowing that his DCU counterpart is Eclipso frankly doesn't mean squat here. My plans for the backstory of his counterpart in this story go way beyond the scope of the DCU character. That being said, there is a hint towards his past in this chapter, though I can't say where.

Also, while I won't say just come out and say it (and as always, please respect that and try to avoid spoilers in Reviews), it's probably obvious what's going on with Ginny and her and Luna's group of friends. And please don't think I was making Jessica stupid, because I wasn't. She simply felt at ease around Ginny because she thought she wouldn't harm her since they were good friend, making her an easy target for Eclipso to take out.

As for why she was taken out first, there's a reason for that which I haven't even hashed out yet (what can I say? It's the way I work) that ties into just what makes her… unique, for lack of a better term… and somewhat antisocial whereas John is a very social person and Blaise at least has to keep up appearances among the Slytherins and both tend to travel in groups.

All 4 have something that those that have siblings sets them off from them, be it something simple like Ginny being the only girl in a large family of boys (and probably some kind of "7th child of a 7th child" thing) or John being half-blood boy with pureblood brothers and sisters. As for Blaise… well, sssince you probably know the group'sss sssecret, you can probably guessss hisss uniquenessss, though asss alwaysss, I won't come out and sssay it. Heh heh.

Anyway, enough with the (mostly) serious stuff… did you like the little inside joke referencing the canon way they obtained Polyjuice? I just needed that to break the tension of this dark chapter and felt it might get a laugh. Anyway, until next time, _Pueda el solitario Dios encuentra la paz por ultimo_.


	4. Chapter 4

All right, a slight addition to the Disclaimers, though it'll only be applicable until the end of this story: I do not own Eclipso. Though this is a different version, the basic character is owned by DC Comics. Other than that, see Chapter 1 for the full one.

Author note: Sorry I've taken a while to get this out. It's been slow going trying to get this written and _The Justice Crusade_ to the point I want to start publishing it (almost there, BTW). I've decided to put the latter on the backburner until this is finished so hopefully the rest of the story will go much smoother. Anyway, just to let you know, this takes place in early 2003 and as such, Christmas will be skimmed over instead of being in full detail. I'm sorry if you don't like that, but to be honest, the only reason I had it in _Phantom relic_ was because of the presents Harry and his friends got and especially so I could introduce the whole subplot with Sirius and Dinah.

I apologize in advance for the boring bit near the first about the apartments in the trunks Harry and his friends have. I'm mostly using it to summarize what they got for Christmas (furniture that can shrink and resize) and birthdays/Christmas presents of all but the twins at this point (the trunks themselves) to try to make up for not having a Christmas chapter. The whole idea of a trunk holding a fully furnished apartment is somewhat based on several stories and I'd rather not track each and every one down to get their permission. However, I could be wrong, but I believe I came up the idea about the closets. As for your question, crazyjim, I'm a Harmony fan so I'm leaning towards that pairing, but even if I don't have them getting together, I'm sorry but let's just say Tonks is out of the running. Anyway, as always, I hope you enjoy reading this as I did writing it.

Harry Potter and the ghost and the darkness

By Lucas Harrell

Chapter 4

Harry looked around and nodded at his handiwork. 'Not bad if I do say so myself,' he thought. Though he was in technically his dorm room in the Gryffindor tower, he was actually in the small apartment in his trunk. This was for many reasons, starting with the bed being much more comfortable than the ancient generic four-poster the school provided. For his Christmas present, his parents had given him a complete set of furniture that could be shrunk and resized to be more manageable and gave his friends a full set of them when they received their trunks/apartments to augment his sparse furniture mostly from his room, including his bed at home, which his mom had resized since he had gotten taller.

Though the apartment walls had come in the standard colors, Harry quickly mastered manipulating the runes built into it that allowed him to colorize his new place. He had yet to activate the _Fidelius_ Charm because he didn't think it was necessary. His mum had been the one who had handled the placement of the runes, so he knew they were safe. Sirius and Remus had given all of hisfriends' a trunk of their own on their birthdays. The twins had gotten one modified to be a two bedroom apartment at Christmas since their birthday was in April. They had all gotten permission to be able to use the apartment at school as long as they didn't do anything to abuse the privilege.

They had also borrowed Harry's at Christmas and had a new feature included in the rest added where each had a closet that acted as a vanishing cabinet, instantly taking them to any of the other trunks. Hermione's didn't work when she was in Ireland, but the others could travel between their homes as often as possible and Luna could visit at school. He had wasted no time in putting all of his furniture in and placed where he liked it, including his invisibility cloak and school robes on hooks on one side of the door. His broom was mounted above on his headboard and access was limited to either him or a password. He kept it down there between games to keep anybody from trying to steal or damage it.

After taking a quick shower and grabbing both his robes and his invisibility cloak, Harry tapped the rune near the door once and the stairs leading up and out of the trunk appeared and tapped the _Lumos_-based runic lamp near the top of the steps, which turned off all the lights in the apartment. Climbing out of the trunk, he closed the lid, set the anti-theft system, shrank it, and placed it in the hidden compartment of his original school trunk before setting the system and shrinking and pocketing it. Between the anti-theft systems of both trunks, it was nearly impossible to get into one much less both for anybody who didn't know how.

Putting the now small trunk in his pocket, Harry looked across the dorm and saw that Ron had obviously not done the same. Neville was already awake. "Be right back," he told him. Walking over to the redhead's trunk, he whispered the password and opened it before heading down the steps after closing the lid behind him to reset the outside lock. He wasn't surprised to find his friend's apartment looking like a trash heap nor was he shocked to find him still in bed, snoring away. He winced. 'I have to say that I don't miss that at all,' he thought. "Oh look, it's almost noon," he announced, "You must have missed breakfast…"

Harry couldn't help but laugh as Ron sat bolt upright. "Huh, what?" he asked, "I missed breakfast?" He started to get up in a hurry before he noticed his friend laughing and glared at him as he got up and headed for his closet. "Oh ha ha, very funny, Harry. You nearly gave me a heart attack. What time is it, really?"

Harry glanced at the wristwatch he had on. His dad had just recently gotten the laws banning magically enhanced non-magical items rescinded but only partially. Basic things like watches were allowed since they dated back before the magical world went into seclusion but not the more high-tech things like cell phones, computers, or even DVD players. "It's only about quarter 'til 10," he replied. He took a look around. "You really need to clean this place up. What would Aunt Molly think if she saw this? Even the twins keep their apartment cleaner than this last I knew and that's with the two of them and their experiments. And don't say they use the runes, because I've seen them physically cleaning it."

"Why should I do it myself when my trunk has auto-cleaning runes?" Ron asked, "We can't all have super-speed to zoom through it like you." Harry sighed and shook his head. He was sick of arguing with him that just because it had runes like that built in didn't mean he should use them for every little thing or that he didn't use his powers.

"Whatever," Harry said, "Come on or we really will be late for breakfast." Grumbling, Ron got out of bed and started getting dressed. He just laughed and headed back into the living room section of the apartment to give him some privacy. Ron soon joined him and they headed up the steps to their dorm. He went through the motions of getting the trunk put up and activated the auto-cleaner before he put it in his old trunk then shrinking it and putting it in his pocket.

With that, they headed down to the common room, where Hermione and Ginny were waiting for them. The young redhead had been looking awful for a few days now. Harry guessed it was because her 3 friends were all laid up in the hospital. As always, Percy had been a prat and practically force fed her a Pepper-Up potion the day before. After quick greetings, they headed out and towards the Great Hall. "So, Harry, are you ready for the game?" Wood asked as he joined them outside the doors. He nodded. "Well then, eat and meet the rest of us in the locker room as soon as possible. We should have time for a little strategy cramming."

Today was Gryffindors second game of the year, this time against Ravenclaw as they had lost to Hufflepuff, who looked to be the other leading team as they had already thrashed them and looked to do the same to Slytherin next month. They figured this would really give the Gryffindor team's _Nimbus_ _Xtreme_s a real workout.

"Got it," Harry said.

They headed into the Great Hall to find it buzzing with activity. Thanks to Luna using her mirror to let them eavesdrop on Malfoy gloating, they quickly found out that two 1st Gens had fallen victim to the mysterious attacker during the night, a 1st Year Gryffindor Colin Creevey and a 2nd Year Hufflepuff named Justin Fitch-Fletchley. Harry had gotten to know Colin during tutoring sessions that he and Hermione had put together to help all of the Gryffindor 1st Years that was inspired by what John had told them about helping Ginny and Luna.

The little guy was likable enough, but calling Colin hyperactive would be a severe understatement and he was constantly getting on people's nerves by taking pictures every few minutes. They had wanted to include those from all 4 Houses, but the restrictions made after Jessica, Blaise, and John were attacked made it impossible. Harry had also gotten to know Justin Fitch-Fletchley pretty well during Duel Club meetings, though it had been rocky at first after the revelation he was a Parselmouth, which still caused students to think he was the Heir of Slytherin every now and then. But they had worked past that and became friends.

"It's like I told you, Crabbe," Draco said, "The Heir of Slytherin is back and is going to free our school from Mudblood filth. Maybe Granger will be next. The little Mudblood slut needs to be knocked down a few pegs again. Or maybe St. Potter himself will be next. That would really get everyone's knickers in a twist." Goyle muttered something the friends couldn't pick up and the blond laughed. "Do I look like someone that will be cowed into using that stupid term Mudblood lovers came up with? And don't even get me started about that Conley idiot. Like Zabini, his family's borderline Blood Traitors so it's not as if him being comatose matters."

"Goyle must have tried to get him to say 1st Gen magic users," Harry muttered once Luna turned off her mirror once Draco finally shut up about what had happened, "What do you know, he actually has some flicker of intelligence. I thought they were all equally stupid. Too bad Malfoy can't say the same." They all laughed.

After breakfast, Dumbledore stepped up to the podium and called for silence. "As you have undoubtedly heard, Colin Creevey of Gryffindor and Justin Fitch-Fletchley of Hufflepuff had been found comatose last night and are currently in the Hospital ward with the others," he said, "While this is serious for us, however, we implore you to stay calm as we are searching for their attackers as we speak. We also ask that you not go anywhere alone. Safety is better guaranteed in numbers after all. If you currently have any information or come across any, please tell your Head of House right away, no matter how insignificant it may seem. And finally, good luck to both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw teams in their game today." With that, he sat down.

After he finished eating, Harry said goodbye to his friends before hurrying out of the Great Hall, falling into step behind his teammates. Ravenclaw was right behind them. They headed for the Quidditch pitch and into the assigned locker room. To save time, he used the auto-retrieval option on his trunk to get his broom out. The strategy session didn't last long and before they headed out, they agreed to dedicate the match to not just Colin Creevey, but all of the students that were comatose, even including Blaise at Harry's behest. "He's seems a decent enough bloke and even if he wasn't and even if he is in Slytherin, no one deserves that," he argued. The others agreed.

It wasn't long before both teams were in the air. Since he had been unable to do so in the match against Slytherin because of Dobby's enchanted Bludger, Harry threw himself into the role of a living distraction even more than usual, constantly pulling stupid stunts or shouting rude comments and making rude noises to take the attention of the opposing team players. Unfortunately for him, this meant that Harry also had to avoid Bludgers more often than not, but since they weren't enchanted to try to take his head off, he found he could easily avoid them. He couldn't help but laugh as he did so. 'I wonder if dad had this much fun in school or in the Jr. Flyers competitions,' he wondered.

It was about an hour or so later and the score was a close 140-130 in Gryffindors favor when Harry spotted the Snitch near the other end of the pitch and sped towards it. Cho saw it and sped after him, so he could only hope that between his good luck on his father's broom and the head start he had on her would… "POTTER HAS THE SNITCH!" Lee shouted, followed by an eruption of cheering from even the Ravenclaws to keep up good sportsmanship. "GRYFFINDOR CONTINUES THEIR UNDEFEATED STREAK, 290-130!" Harry landed and was swamped by his teammates and pretty much everyone in Gryffindor. 'This is definitely the good life,' he thought.

"The humans have no idea what fate is awaiting them," Ginny said as she stepped out into a circle of all the zombie-like students she had been converting to her cause. Her eyes were glowing purple, her face was half-covered in shadow, and the diamond-like object was on her forehead. "And soon, we will have the power to…"

"You'll never win, Maleagant," a soft voice suddenly called out from behind Ginny, causing the redhead to spin around to find a short, half-visible man with a ponytail watching her. "Your plans were unsuccessful 1000 years ago and I believe you'll find them no closer to coming to fruition in the here and now."

"Ah, I was wondering if you'd show your face, old 'friend'," Ginny said, finally shaking off the shock and spitting the last part out. Her followers started to step forward but she stopped them with a raised hand and brief pulse of her energy showing from her eyes. "Are you here to stop my plans… or to join me?"

The man shook his head. "You know as well as I do that you have no control over the dead as you'd remember from trying to convert me back in the day and that I can't stop you," he replied, then smiled as he thought, 'At least not directly.' "But you will be stopped. The last born of Van and El and their allies will see to that, I promise you."

Ginny laughed long and hard at that. "You think mere children can take me out?" she leered, "If so, you've become deluded in the last 1000 years. Make no mistake: a single Kryptonian has no hope in defeating me and with you obviously not being able to interfere, the Earth will soon be mine and the universe will soon follow."

"And you call me deluded," the man replied, "Just remember when you're put back in your prison that I was right last time and I was right this time and I will be right the next time, be it five days from your new imprisonment or another 1000 years, and the time after that, and the time after that." With that, he disappeared with a strange multi-colored pulse of energy.

When the Duel Club meeting came around a few weeks later, Harry was a little surprised when Flitwick took him aside. "Instead of continuing the age-based tournaments this month, we wanted to shake things up a bit this month," the little professor explained. Lockhart had finally admitted that he had a lot more experience in dueling, so he was now overseer. "We're going to have a small tournament of 4-on-4 duels with the best students of the various year groups that complement each other the best. It should be interesting in the case of your team as it calls upon all 4 Houses.

"You will be paired with Alexis Constantine of Ravenclaw 7th Year, Jane Holland of Slytherin 5th Year, and I believe you know Cedric Diggory," Flitwick said, pointing to Harry's teammates in turn. He did indeed know Cedric and he had seen the 17 year old young man with dark brown hair and the beautiful young woman but didn't know them.

Harry nodded towards his fellow Seeker. "Cedric," he said and the Hufflepuff returned the nod and greeting before he turned to his other teammates, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Janet and Alexis." The two others nodded. "So, what's the plan?" He looked at Alexis since she was the oldest.

"You don't know the shield charm, so for the first duel, if the other team tries to flank us, the three of us will keep you protected in triangle fortress formation while you fire off spells at the other team," Alexis said. Harry nodded. The fortress formation was one of the most basic dueling techniques and was perfect for teams 4 as 3 people could protect the offensive dueler very well in case the other team split up. The team's first duel went well. He sniped most of the other teams' members off easily while his teammates kept him well-protected. The last one was a problem, but with them dueling alone, the whole team focused on them and took them out easily.

"All right, I don't think the same trick will work twice," Alexis said.

"I've got an idea," Harry said, "You 3 keep them distracted while I flank them and then I'll run at them. If someone could use Wingardium Leviosa to carefully send me into the air, my momentum should carry me over them and I can pick them off in midair."

"There's a better spell to get you up in the air, though you'll be upside down," Cedric said.

"I don't get airsickness or whatever it so that won't be a problem," Harry said, "In fact, it'll probably help me catch them by surprise more easily."

"Then we've got a plan," Alexis said. With that decided, they started the duel as Harry had suggested. As expected, his momentum carried him over the other team's heads after Cedric had cast _Levicorpus_ at him then used _Liberacorpus_ while Janet used _Arresto Momentum_ to keep him from falling to the ground too hard.

Harry wasn't too surprised to not only see the twins on the opposing team with a 5th Year Hufflepuff and a 7th Year Ravenclaw. "Whoa boy," he murmured, "Watch out for the twin redheads." The others nodded.

"I've got an idea," Janet said before whispering to her teammates.

Ginny had a wicked grin on her face as she looked around the room she was in. Several students were lying unconscious on the floor around her. 'These mortals are so easy to fool,' she thought. She had been working hard during the tournament enticing students to come to this room and she would soon have nearly 3 times the followers. She left the room and headed back to the dueling arena. Once inside, she looked around until she spotted one person in particular. 'You will be the final straw that brings him into my arms,' she thought.

Ginny muttered as she walked towards them and her hand glowed purple as something formed in it. Stepping up to the person in question, she hit them with a stunner and caught them before their fall caught anyone's attention and lowered them to the ground. Luckily for her, everyone else was still watching the duel. She placed the diamond in her hand onto the person's forehead but was surprised when it disappeared with a brief flash of light. 'What is this?' she thought, 'A Mudblood with this kind of power?'

Ginny's eyes closed for a moment. 'No, it's nothing inherent,' she decided, 'It must be _him_ interfering. Very well, even if I can't have her in my army, neither shall you.' She muttered several words and the eyes of the girl she was standing over took on a milky look. A triumphant look crossed her face before she straightened and walked off. She lengthened her gait when after mere seconds, one of the girl's friends noticed and started screaming.

"And now, for the final duel of our little tournament," Flitwick announced as he stepped to the middle of the platform, "Both teams have worked hard with different strategies to get to this point, so we can only imagine this should be a good one."

At Flitwick's prompt, the 8 duelers bowed at first to each other, then the professor, and then finally the gathered students. When he gave the go ahead, Harry and his team sent sparkler spell at the eyes of their opponents' to blind them for a few minutes so they could set up his strategy. The opposing team didn't seem to notice any change but that their opponents were back in a wall formation, with Janet and Alexis in front with _Protego_s and Cedric and Harry right behind them.

They were quick to scramble to do the same… and were caught completely by surprise when instead of aiming directly at their opponents, Cedric and Harry started rapidly firing off spells in seemingly random directions. It was then that they noticed that all along the sides and ceiling of their half of the dueling arena, the walls had been charmed to be reflective surfaces, which bounced the spells towards the small group. They tried scrambling to block them, but Janet and Alexis dropping their Protegos and joining in with a straight on assault made it a foregone conclusion.

"AND WE HAVE OUR WINNERS!" Flitwick announced as he joined the two again, cancelling the spells used. "ALEXIS CONSTANTINE OF RAVENCLAW, JANET HOLLAND OF SLYTHERIN, CEDRIC DIGGORY OF HUFFLEPUFF, AND HARRY POTTER OF GRYFFINDOR, TAKE YOUR BOWS!" At that prompting, Harry and his team took the customary bows, first to their opponents who returned the gesture, then to Flitwick who did the same, and the crowd, all of whom were all whooping and hollering.

"ALL TEAMS WILL BE GIVEN PRIZES DEPENDENT ON HOW FAR THEY MADE IT IN THE TOURNAMENT, WHICH WILL BE READY BY THE END OF THE WEEK," Flitwick said, "A THANKS GOES OUT TO…" Suddenly, a shrill shriek cut in from behind Harry. He spun around to see several students circling around. He wasn't far behind Flitwick as the crowd parted and if his heart could have topped it would have at the person lying comatose on the ground. "Oh god no, Hermione!" he exclaimed as he rushed forward.

To be continued…

Author note: I know this chapter was a bit rushed and short and I'm sorry. I just wanted to have updates on the House Quidditch and Duel Club tournaments (well, sort of regarding the latter) out of the way before starting the lead-up into the final confrontation with Eclipso and it just ended up the way it did. Don't worry, I promise I'll make up for it by the end of the story though. Anyway, another piece to the puzzle that is my version of Eclipso. He was around roughly 1000 years ago (you'll find that a lot of plot had originally taken place at the founding of Hogwarts and let's just say that there's a very good reason for that which I can't go into) and his name seems to be Maleagant.

Anybody that knows Authurian legend might know the name. However, while his name is from there, there is no direct relation to him and the one from said legend. I was just brushing up on the legends (believe it or not, I've been fascinated by them since I was barely able to read) and loved the name and how it fits the character in many ways. Though the names are a mix and match version of the 2 popular characters in DC's Vertigo line and the movies based on them, Alexis Constantine and Janet Holland are currently just a coincidence, though that may change later. I liked the two names and decided to use the female form of both and switched the surnames for the hell of it. Anyway, until next time, _Pueda el solitario Dios la paz por ultimo_.


	5. Chapter 5

See the last Chapter and Chapter 1 for the Disclaimers.

Author's note: Don't worry about Hermione, Wonderbee31, as it's nothing major. He casts 2 enchantments every time he gets the drop on someone he wants to convert, one to create the diamond that allows him to possess them and one to put them into the comatose state they're in during the day when he can't take them over. Eclipso couldn't do the former for reasons that will become obvious soon if they aren't already, so as he thought when he jumped her, he made sure he could do the latter to try to make Harry go running to Ginny in Hermione's absence. Anyway, thanks for the Reviews, everybody, and I hope you enjoy reading this as I did writing it.

Harry Potter and the ghost and the darkness

By Lucas Harrell

Chapter 5

Harry was holding Hermione's hand in his as he stared into her eerily blank eyes. Everything besides classes had been cancelled from Quidditch to the Duel Club and students were walked between classes by the teacher of the previous class, a fact that no one liked, Snape most of all.

But none of that mattered to Harry, even the rumors that Hogwarts might soon be closing. All that mattered to him right now was that Hermione had been comatose for 2 months. He, Neville, and even Ron had been working on taking and combining notes to give to her when she came out of the coma so she wouldn't miss too much.

As if Harry didn't already have enough on his mind with Hermione being comatose, his parents had called using the mirrors and had reluctantly admitted that Remus had gone missing. They told him not to worry about it too much, because Sirius and James had nearly unlimited resources at their disposal and it was just a matter of time before he popped up.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter," a voice interjected. Harry turned around to find Madam Pomfrey standing a few feet away. "I've given you as much leeway as I can, but it's getting late so I'm going to have to ask you to leave for your own sake than anything. I'll take you back to the Gryffindor tower."

Harry sighed. "All right, but can I have just a few more minutes to say good night?" he asked. Madam Pomfrey nodded as she stepped out the door. He turned to Hermione with a fierce look in his eyes.

"I promise I'll find who did this and stop them," Harry swore, then looked around at the other patients, whose numbers were now almost half the school despite the best efforts of the staff. "For all of you." With that, he let go of her hand, stood up, and walked out.

After Madam Pomfrey took him back Gryffindor tower, Harry sat on one of the couches and simply stared into the fire, lost in thought. 'So many have fallen… ill… to whatever this is,' he thought, 'If it's some kind of virus, I'm guessing my Kryptonian physiology will keep it from infecting me, but how can I use it to stop it?'

"Harry?"

Harry turned and found Ron and Neville watching him. "Madam Pomfrey ran me out of hospital wing," he muttered, "But I think I was going to leave soon anyway. I don't even know why I go there. It just makes me feel more and more useless. Even with all my power, I can't save my best friend."

"Don't think like that, Harry," Neville said, "Hermione wouldn't want you to agonize over her like this."

"Yeah, she'd give you a swift kick in the arse and tell you to get off it and go to the library to research it or something," Ron added, "Too bad it's closed or we could get a good head start on it tonight."

Harry sighed and nodded. "You're right," he said as he got up, "In the morning, I'll go there first thing and I'll see if I can find anything. Hopefully I can find a secluded corner and use my speed reading to go through practically the whole library.

"The Headmaster might even let me use some from the Restricted Section," Harry said, "He trusts me enough to know that I wouldn't go near anything dangerous." Ron and Neville nodded as the three headed up to bed.

The next day was a Saturday, so Harry had all day to look through book, including a limited list of Restricted Section ones. He had gotten permission to use the small storage closet so he was able to zip through them with ease using his superspeed.

However, Harry's search was coming up with absolutely nothing. The closest thing he could find that could do what was going on is a basilisk's deadly or petrifying gaze, depending on how you see its eyes.

'That might explain most of the comatose students, but not Hermione,' Harry thought as he closed a book with a growl of frustration, 'Even with the Duel Club tournament finals going on, there's no way so many people would have missed a huge snake.'

Harry felt something vibrate in the pocket of his robes so he reached in and took out the mirror. "Mirror on." he said and was a little surprised when Luna's face appeared. "Oh hey, Luna. What's going on?"

"Just wondering if you were going to join us for lunch is all," Luna replied. She had taken to hanging around the group more since all of her other friends were comatose and Ginny was distant and usually ate lunch with them.

Harry glanced at his watch and swore. 'Didn't realize it was almost noon,' he thought, 'Or that my stomach has been growling for a while now.' "I've got to put some books back on the shelves and I'll be right down," he promised.

"See you then," Luna said and they signed off.

Harry put the books back and headed down to the Great Hall and sat down between Ron while Neville and Luna sat across from them, the former scarfing down food like no tomorrow and the other 2 trying not to notice. "Did you find anything?" Neville asked.

Harry shook his head. "Nothing so far, but I haven't gone through many books," he said. This was a lie of course but he couldn't say in front of Luna that he had gone through pretty much every book in the library in just a couple of hours.

When lunch was coming to a close, Harry excused himself and got up before heading to the staff table, stopping before Dumbledore, who gave him the password to his office and soon both were sitting on either side of his desk. "So, did you find anything?"

Harry shook his head. "I went through pretty much every book in the library and didn't find a thing," he admitted, "The closest I can find is maybe a basilisk, but while it could have gotten most of the others, there's no way a large snake could have gotten into the arena and gotten Hermione without anybody seeing it."

"Maybe you should…" Dumbledore started but was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door. He motioned for Harry to put his invisibility cloak on, which he quickly did, curious on why he was doing so.

"Come in," Dumbledore called out and they were surprised when the door Lucius Malfoy and a small, rather timid-looking man Harry recognized as the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge walked through. "Ah, Lucius, Cornelius, how may I help you today?"

"I'm afraid this isn't a social call, Albus," the Minister said, "We…"

"_I'm _here on the orders of the Board of Governors," Lucius interrupted, holding out a small roll of parchment. "Because of the ongoing tragic events happening here, we are ordering your suspension as Headmaster of Hogwarts."

Harry was horrified as Dumbledore reached out and took the roll from Lucius then unraveled and it. "This seems to be in order," he admitted even more softly than usual, "I will leave, but I will also be taking this up with the other Governors. The opening of Maleagant's prison is nothing to take lightly and the school will need me back as soon as possible."

"Maleagant's prison?" the Minister inquired, "That's just a myth."

"Mayhaps so, mayhaps not," Dumbledore replied, "But only a speaker could find out for sure." Harry noticed him looking directly at him for a moment as he said this. "The wailing ghost and the sapphire ghost are the keys. Any who need safe haven can access this office until I return as they can find their answers here." With that, he followed the 2 out of his office.

Harry was too surprised. 'A speaker?' he thought, 'Does he mean a Parseltongue? Wait, wait…' Something clicked in his mind. 'He mentioned someone or something called Maleagant. I know that name, but where? And what did he mean by the wailing ghost and the emerald ghost?'

Knowing he should keep them in the loop, Harry used his mirror to call Ron and explained what had happened. "I can't believe they took Dumbledore away," the redhead said, "What do you want us to do?"

"Dumbledore said that anybody that needs safe haven can come here and then said something about our answers will be found here," Harry said, "You guys come here and we'll start looking through the books here."

"What about Luna?" Ron asked, looking over his shoulder. Since he didn't lower his voice it appeared Luna wasn't near him, but while they knew she shouldn't be alone, they also knew that she might find out about Harry's hidden heritage.

"Bring her along since without me being able to blur, we could probably use her help," Harry decided, "I'll just have to be careful about using my powers." Ron nodded as they closed the link.

When the group got there, they spent the better part of the next couple of days searching through the books. To go along with the story that he hadn't read all of the books, Harry went and checked out several books and it was a good thing they did.

"Hey guys, check this out," Neville said. He had a book titled _Banned Forenames_. "I think I found him. Listen to this. 'Maleagant was one of the first recorded names to be banned after Salazar Slytherin's son used an unknown power to enthrall a group of followers to destroy all known existence and has been imprisoned ever since'."

"That would explain a lot," Harry said, "Something must have happened to set him free and he's been slowly taking over the school to build up enough power to try it again. But what did Dumbledore mean by when he said that the wailing ghost and the sapphire ghost are the keys?"

"Well, I don't know anything about a sapphire ghost," Luna interjected, "But I think I might know who he meant by a wailing one. A rather dour ghost nicknamed Moaning Myrtle haunts one of the girls Loos and pretty much scares off any that try to use it."

"We need to go try to talk to her then," Harry said. The four nodded and headed out of the office.

Meanwhile, Ginny had gathered her group of followers down in a catacomb deep underneath Hogwarts. They fanned out in a circle around her, with her three friends in a perfect triangle formation in front of her and on either side behind her.

"Tonight is the night of the eclipse and when my power will be at its greatest," Ginny said, "But only if we use your combined power to divest me of this… this meatbag. Once I am free, we will go out into the world and conquer it and it will be one world under ECLIPSO!"

At that, Ginny's followers linked hands and started allowing their magic to flow through each other and into the nearest of her 3 generals. Once the energy hit each, the diamonds on their foreheads emitted beams of energy that lashed out and struck her.

"OH THE POWER!" the entity within Ginny shouted. Her body began shaking violently as a purple smoke issued forth from the diamond on her forehead into a vaguely humanoid shape. "THE PURE UNADULTERATED POWER! WITH THIS, NO ONE CAN HOPE TO STAND AGAINST US!" With that, it began cackling madly.

Suddenly, it stopped laughing as it looked almost directly up. "So, the Kryptonian is coming to stop me, eh?" the entity growled, "We'll just see about that." With that, he launched up a long slide nearby, hissing as it went.

"Oh hello," a rather strange-looking female ghost said as Luna lead Harry, Ron, and Neville into the Loo. "I haven't had guests in years, especially cute boys. Would any of you like to haunt my U-bend when you die?"

"Um, perhaps," Harry said, "You're Mo… er, Myrtle, right?"

"Yes, I'm ugly old moping, Moaning Myrtle," the girl said, her smile turning into a sad frown as she had caught Harry almost calling her by her nickname. She started floating around like she would be pacing if she was still alive. "Who am I kidding? Nobody wants to come see me and who can blame them?"

"I'm sorry you've been treated badly," Harry said honestly as he stepped forward.

Myrtle turned back with a surprise. "You mean you're not here to make fun of me?" she asked hopefully.

"No, but I'm afraid we also can't stay long," Harry said, "I don't know if you've heard, but someone's been attacking the school and we've been led to believe that you might know something about it. Have you seen anything weird this year?"

"Oh, I've heard and seen all kinds of things," Myrtle said, "Including your secret. Do your friends know what you do when you think no one else is looking?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Harry said.

"Oh of course you don't," Myrtle said, "Ghosts have a sense of time and space beyond what we had in life, you know. Guess that's why so many of us tend to be trapped in a loop and end up loopy. Some can't handle it all.

"But I can," Myrtle said, "I've seen you zipping all around the school since that _girl_ came and went last year. And of course this year you've been able to shoot some kind of fire out of your eyes, which is so wicked."

"Harry, what's she talking about?" Luna asked.

"Oh like you don't know," Myrtle said, shaking a finger at Luna. "Ever since you saw him use his fire vision at that Quidditch game, you've been following all over the place, stalking him. Of course, he's so cute I'd stalk him too if I could move fast enough, but still…"

"Wait… what?" Harry asked, "She couldn't have been following me. I would have seen her."

"She's made sure she was always… what do you call it again… oh yes, blurring along just behind you in the shadows," Myrtle stated matter-of-factly.

"What's she talking about, Luna?" Harry demanded, "Are you… Kryptonian?"

Luna sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she stepped over to one of the sinks to lean back against. "I guess it's time I came clean," she said and her friends were surprised when the sing-song tone was gone from her voice, "Yes, I'm Kryptonian… Kal-El."

"How do you know that name?" Harry exclaimed.

"Because I'm your cousin," Luna said. She reached into her pocket and slowly pulled out a disk and to Harry's shock, looked just like the one still in his pocket, which he pulled out. "My Kryptonian name was Kara Zor-Van."

'I knew that baby in the Mirror of Erised looked familiar,' Harry realized, 'It was Luna as a baby. It also goes a long way to explaining why I've felt connected to her. I must have sensed she was family.' "But if you're Kryptonian, aren't you suffering from the same side-effects of the genetic engineering?"

"No, I…" Before Luna could say anymore, a huge shadowy creature came roaring up out of a hole in the floor where a sink had been beside her, which was now in pieces. Before she could react, it grabbed her and pulled her down the hole.

Harry was the first to shake off the shock of the sudden attack and noticed the hole had started closing back up. "Oh no you don't," he growled as he blurred over to the hole, jumped over it and through the wall behind it, and used his brute strength to keep it open, though he knew that even he could only hold it open so long. "Guys come on!"

Ron and Neville wasted no time in rushing over to where Harry was holding the hole open and jumping down it. He dove down it after them and it closed behind him. He was a bit surprised to be sliding down a chute. 'This would be a hell of a lot more enjoyable if the bottom of the chute was so disgusting,' he thought.

Harry was more than a little surprised when he got to the bottom of the slide to find himself alone in a huge series of catacombs. The shadow creature and its followers, Ron, Luna, Neville… all were missing. "HELLO?" he called out, slowly making his way through the catacombs.

About halfway down the chute, Ron and Neville were surprised when a second, smaller chute opened long enough for both of them to fall down and closed before Harry could see where his friends went.

At the end of the chute, they found themselves in a strange chamber that seemed to be line with some kind of crystal-like mineral and had a rock that seemed to radiating rotating colors. "What the bloody hell is going on here?" Ron asked as they stepped over to it.

It seemed to have a compulsion charm on it as they couldn't help but reach out and touch the rock. It disappeared with a blinding series of lights that had them covering their eyes so unbeknownst to them, 5 beams of different colored lights went streaking through the chute they had come through.

They opened their eyes to find not only 2 rings hovering in the air in front of them, but the rings were also in either hand of the ghost a small blue-skinned wearing red robes with silvery hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Ah at last you have arrived, my champions," the ghost said.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Ron asked.

"My original name is something humans lack the ability to vocalize," the ghost said, "And I've been known by many other names on many different planets and in as many different languages, but I've always liked the one the people of this planet gave me when I came here, so you may call me Ganthet."

"So, you're an alien?" Ron asked. Ganthet nodded. "Then what did you come here for, trying to invade us?"

"Come here?" Ganthet asked as his brow furrowed, "Ah yes, I can see the misunderstanding. You probably think I just recently came to Earth and died in some failed invasion attempt, but I've been here for roughly 1000 of your years.

"As for why, my original home world of Maltuse was destroyed," Ganthet explained, "But the council infused me with the last of their magical power and sent me away and I eventually ended up here on Earth. I died helping defeat a menace here and my spirit has been trapped here ever since."

"Wait a minute… you've been here for a 1000 years?" Ron asked, "On Earth in general or specifically here in Hogwarts? Did you know the Founders?"

"A little of both, but mostly here in Hogwarts," Ganthet said, "And not only did I know the Founders, you could say that I actually was one, but that's a story for another time. Your friends are going to badly need your help soon, so you'll need to take these rings.

"My people planned to create rings just like this except using technology to create a police force to bring law to the galaxy," Ganthet said, "And this is the end result of their plans, except I could only make 7 of them before I died and no one else could. When you touched the rock, the other 5 were sent out to search for their destined wielders.

"Now, again, please take the rings," Ganthet insisted, holding the green ring out to Ron and the blue one to Neville, who hesitantly took them and placed them on their fingers. "They will connect you each to one of several inter-dimensional power sources that you can use to defeat Maleagant and any other threats to Earth.

"Now, you'll have to recharge them so please open the hatch on the top of the ring," Ganthet said. They did so and found a small object that looked like old-fashioned lanterns inside.

"Take out your lanterns, send the mental command to make them grow, and set them on the floor," Ganthet said. They did and the lanterns grew to a more reasonable size. "Point your rings inches from the outlet and instinct should tell you what to do next. They will draw upon your rawest subconscious need to determine what power they'll give you."

"IN BRIGHTEST DAY, IN BLACKEST NIGHT," Ron chanted, "NO EVIL SHALL ESCAPE MY SIGHT! LET ALL THOSE WHO WORSHIP EVIL'S MIGHT BEWARE MY POWER, GREEN LANTERNS LIGHT!"

"IN FEARFUL DAY, IN RAGING NIGHT," Neville chanted, "WITH STRONG HEARTS FULL, OUR SOULS IGNITE! WHEN ALL SEEMS LOST IN THE WAR OF LIGHT, LOOK TO THE STARS… FOR HOPE BURNS BRIGHT!"

A wave of energy in their respective colors issued forth from their lanterns and struck their rings and encompassed their bodies until it covered them completely, then shattered like a mirror and dissipated and they found themselves covered in an armored costume.

Ron's body was encased in an armor that not only had a dark green but also white, with a lantern-shaped symbol on the right side of his chest that had both. Neville's was a little more standard, with a blue and white lantern in the middle of his chest.

"Ron, you now have the power of the Green Lantern with sheer force of willpower itself fueling it," Ganthet explained, "You can use your ring to create energy constructs to fight both directly and indirectly. This comes from your subconscious need to aid your friends in any way possible.

"Neville, you now have the power of the Blue Lantern with the power of your hope fueling the power it gives you," Ganthet said, "Because of your subconscious need to heal your parents and any others hurt, your power is mostly medical, with the ability to heal almost any wounds and you can shrink to better heal things at a subatomic level.

"When you two are in proximity, you can share each other's ability," Ganthet continued, "Ron can shrink when necessary while Neville can use limited constructs that can only indirectly battle foes. Your rings also both have flight capability and project an aura around your body that will absorb blows."

"Can our rings link to any of the others?" Neville asked.

"Only yours," Ganthet said, "But there's no way to tell what abilities you would gain by linking them, because the power the ring gives it's wielder is dependent on their emotions and to their subconscious.

"But you have the capability to be the strongest of the Lanterns if all 7 rings were ever to come into close proximity to each other," Ganthet continued, "And as Mr. Weasley can attest to, your ring can supercharge all of the others to up to twice. And now, you must go. Your Kryptonian friends have found Maleagant and will need your help."

"But how do we get to them?" Ron asked.

"Simply focus your rings on your need to find your friends and they will take you to them," Ganthet said, "Return here after you defeat Maleagant, for there are still many things I still have to tell you and your friends." The two boys nodded and did as he suggested and a few seconds later, they were teleported away in a respective flash of green and blue.

After walking for several minutes, Harry finally found Luna fighting off a few of Eclipso's followers, who beat a hasty retreat when they spotted him. "Whoa, that was weird… Oh hello, Kal-El," Luna said as she turned and spotted him.

"We've got to talk after we finish this," Harry said, "I mean… I have no idea how to process this. While us being cousins explains a lot, it's still a lot to handle." 'Why does this sound so familiar?' he thought, 'Oh yeah, it's almost the exact same conversation I had with my parents and the AI over what my friends would think.'

"I know," Luna said, "I felt that way when I finally figured out who you were, back when you blew up that Bludger at the first Quidditch match. But just because we found out that we're the last living blood family that each other has shouldn't change anything except for the better."

"I-I suppose so," Harry admitted, "But it'll definitely take some getting used to… what the hell do I call you anyway?"

"Just call me what you've always called me," Luna said, "Kara Zor-Van might be my birth name, but all I've ever really remembered being called was Luna. Or when you're ready, we can call each other some variation of cousin when we're around people who know about our secret."

"Ah, isn't this sweet?" a voice called. Harry and Luna turned to find Eclipso glaring at them with Ginny and his followers all around him. Both the diamonds on their foreheads and their eyes were glowing fiercely at the same rate as the smoky substance that made up his body. "Even with all of the power you two have, you don't really think you'll win do you?" he sneered.

"Guess we'll find out, won't we?" Luna asked.

"You know, it's actually funny you should be here to confront me, Potter," Eclipso pointed out, "After all, you're the one who set me free from my prison." He laughed at the strange look on Harry's face.

"Oh you didn't know?" Eclipso taunted, "Only a Parselmouth could have opened the door to my prison and after viewing Ginny's memories, I found that while there are 2 currently in this school, only one spoke at the time I was freed, so I thank you for doing so."

"All of… this is my fault?" Harry asked, horrified. "All of those people attacked and forced into your army and Hermione…" He swallowed a lump in his throat. "And Hermione put into a comatose state… all that's because of me?"

"You can't think like that, Harry," Luna said, "You speaking Parseltongue that day wasn't something you could control any more than anything other power you could gain. Don't let Maleagant…"

"I am no longer Maleagant Slytherin, but instead so much more," Eclipso said.

"Don't let Maleagant make you think otherwise," Luna said as if there hadn't been an interruption, "You have a good heart. Don't let him corrupt it or he'll have already won."

"Ah, but corruption is what I do best," Eclipso said, "All of my followers have darkness within their hearts that allowed me to take them over. Like Ginny, my first host. Her heart was darkened with jealousy over any girl that would give you any attention as well as not getting much attention from being the youngest child in a large family.

"Or take her friends for another instance, the other Heirs," Eclipso said, "The darkness in Blaise Zabini's heart comes from being sick of his very bloodline being exiled because of my actions before my imprisonment and my father's later ones. John's comes from his pureblooded father leaving his Muggle mother alone and pregnant and Jessica's…"

"Wait a minute," Harry interjected, "Blaise is the exiled Heir of Slytherin? That doesn't make any sense… unless… huh, so the purebloods were right and wrong. There are 2 main Heirs of Slytherin, Blaise who helps to save the world with the other Heirs, which I'm guessing is Ginny and their friends, and one pureblood fanatic that will devastate it… you!"

"Very good, for a being with such a small 1 dimensional brain," Eclipso said. Since he didn't have solid hands, to mock them, he made his followers clap for him. "But now, I'm sick of this game, so it is time… for you to die!"

With that, Eclipso sent his followers rushing at the two young Kryptonians. At first, they figured they'd dispatch them with ease, but quickly found out that he had used his newfound power to make his followers almost invincible.

It was into this bedlam that Ron and Neville came teleporting in. The brief flash of light caused Eclipso and all of his followers to scream and back up, which Harry found interesting. 'The Sorting song, it wasn't just a lot of hot air,' he realized, 'It sensed Maleagant's return somehow and was telling us that bright light is the only way to defeat him.

"Hey Luna, do you have heat vision yet?" Harry called. To answer his question, Luna's eyes took on a fiery hue he imagined his looked like when he was using said power. "Use it and focus on the diamond on their heads, but try not to burn them." She nodded. "Guys, I'm guessing you have some kind of light-based powers, so you do the same." Ron and Neville nodded.

The quartet did this and weren't surprised when the diamonds on the heads of Eclipso's followers shrank and eventually disappeared. However, as each was freed, their eyes took on the milky look Hermione's had and they dropped to the floor. 'But at least he can't control them anymore,' Harry thought.

Eclipso himself was writing around as most of his power started leeching back out of his body painfully. "NO, YOU CANNOT DO THIS!" he shouted, "I AM FATED TO DOMINATE THIS WORLD! _HE_ PROMISED ME THAT!"

However, contrary to his boasting, the entity decided that the best thing to do was retreat and did so. The friends were surprised when a small tendril of energy tethered him to the diamond still on Ginny's head caused her body to float off after it.

'He?' Harry thought, 'Was he given this power by the same entity that was controlling Quirrell last year?' He shook his head as he joined his friends. Neville used his ring to accelerate their healing and the few bruises they had gotten faded in no time. "Thanks Neville, but for now, we need to follow him and finish this."

"But how?" Ron asked, "I don't think we could create enough light to vanquish him!"

"Wait, maybe we can," Neville said, "I think Ron and I can create a miniature sun-like energy projection but I don't think we can create flames with just our rings, so if you can ignite it using your heat vision…"

"That should make it bright enough to force Eclipso into retreating into that diamond on Ginny's head and we can take it off of her and put it back in his prison," Luna added. They nodded and headed after Eclipso and Ginny.

It didn't take long to find them and as they entered the chamber they were in, Eclipso whirled on them. "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" he shouted, "YOU PATHETIC APES ARE NO MATCH FOR THE MIGHT OF ECLIPSO!"

"Actually, we may not be, but we think these are," Ron said. Him and Neville held up their ring hands and combined the energies of them to create a large green and blue energy construct shaped like the sun.

"And what good are they alone when they can have a little help from their friends?" Harry added. His and Luna's eyes flared up and they used their heat vision to ignite the construct, lighting up every inch of the chamber they were in. Neville and Ron created goggle like masks to cover the eyes of all 4 and Ginny.

"NO!" Eclipso roared, writhing in pain in the face of such a devastatingly bright light. His body shrank more and more until it followed the tendril back into the diamond on Ginny's head, inside of which he now found himself trapped.

Harry quickly raised his wand and pointed it at the diamond. "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" he chanted and the diamond rose into the air. He kept his wand trained on it to make sure it wasn't going anywhere as he didn't know if they could beat him again.

To their surprise and relief, Ginny's went to normal once the diamond was taken off her forehead and she slowly sat up. She screamed when she saw the diamond. "Oh Merlin, I was hoping it was just a dream," she murmured.

"We have a lot of questions, but it can wait until later," Harry said, "We need to get Maleagant back into his prison before he can get away, so I don't guess you know where it is do you?" He didn't know how much Ginny remembered about her time being possessed by Eclipso, but he hope she knew that much.

Ginny nodded. "Follow me," she said and started heading further in the chamber. The 4 followed her, with Ron and Neville keeping the construct going, Luna making sure it stayed lit, and Harry keeping the spell on the diamond going.

Ginny finally led them to a small door that to Harry's surprise looked to be Kryptonian. On the other side of it was a huge vault. "He was imprisoned in here by the Founders and Salazar sealed it with a Parseltongue password," she explained.

Harry nodded as they entered the vault. He placed the diamond on the far side of the vault and they hurried out. Luna, Ron, and Neville let the energy dissipate as he said a single word in Parseltongue, "_Close and lock_." They heard Eclipso roaring inside the vault as the door slammed shut and locked itself.

"Just how much do you remember from your time being possessed by him?" Ron asked as him and Neville went back to their regular clothes.

"Everything, but don't worry," Ginny said, looking at her brother and each of their friends in turn. "I'm pretty sure the enchantments Eclipso used will keep anybody else from remembering anything and you have to know I won't tell anybody about your secrets, especially that you two aren't human, Harry and Luna."

"We know, but thanks for the reassurance, Ginny," Harry said.

Ron and Neville shared a glance. "Ginny, we have something else to do," Ron said, gesturing to the 4 young superheroes. "So maybe you should go back and make sure the people Eclipso had used gets back to the surface?"

"Why can't I come with you?" Ginny asked.

"They need to get to the hospital wing to make sure that there aren't any side-effects and you're the only one who knows a way back up to the main school, while Ron and Neville can probably get us back up there the same way they found us," Luna reasoned. Ginny sighed but nodded and headed back to the chamber the followers had been left in.

"So now that Ginny's gone, care to tell us why we sent her away?" Harry asked.

"Just hold on tight and everything will be explained," Neville said. He placed a hand on one of Harry's shoulders while Ron did the same to one of Luna's, focused on their ring and their need to go back to the crystalline chamber, and the 4 teleported away in two blinding flashes of light.

They soon found themselves in the same crystalline chamber as Ron and Neville had ended up in earlier and saw Ganthet waiting on them. "Ah good, you were able to defeat Eclipso and put him back in his prison," he said.

"Was there any doubt?" Ron joked. Thinking it best to humor him, Ganthet nodded.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, "And where are we?"

"You may call me Ganthet and before I answer anything else, I must first ask you to do something first," Ganthet explained. He gestured to 2 holes side by side that to Harry and Luna's surprise was the exact same size and shape as their disks. "Please place your database disks in those holes so that this chamber may finally fully come to life."

Ron noticed the questioning look in his friends' eyes. "It's all right, guys," he said, "You can trust Ganthet. He's the one who gave us these rings and we wouldn't have been able to defeat Eclipso without them. He wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't necessary."

Luna nodded but Harry was still unsure, so he activated the database. "Good after…" the AI started but broke off when he noticed where they were, "This is amazing. The way the crystal structure is perfectly carved into the stone… it's a perfect imitation of Kryptonian crystalline architecture."

"While the crystal isn't of true Kryptonian origin, I can assure you that it is only an imitation in the strictest sense of the word," Ganthet interjected, "I saw and helped with the design myself."

"But I thought this was Maltusian technology or whatever," Ron said.

"I never said that," Ganthet pointed out, "In fact, even though the rings you wear were my people's idea, they're actually made of Earth crystal that Kryptonians processed and strengthened. But how this is genuine Kryptonian technology will have wait for the moment. For now, please place the disks in those grooves."

Harry nodded and taking his place next to Luna, both placed their database disks in the marked spots. Suddenly, the image of Jor-El appeared in one of the crystals and a beautiful young blond woman appeared in another.

"Wow, is that your biological mom, Luna?" Ron asked, "She was a bab…" He was cut off in midsentence by a glare from both mother and daughter. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect, ma'am. I meant that you are very beautiful."

"I am Lana Zor-Van nee Nok-Tor and I thank you for your compliment, however crude it was, Ronald," the woman said, "I have guided young Kara ever since she learned of her Kryptonian heritage and am proud to see the young woman she has grown into thanks to her family and especially her friends. And it is good to see you again, Kal-El."

"Um, thank you… a-a-aunt Lana," Harry said. 'Would explain just where uncle Xeno got the idea for Luna's name,' he thought. Xenophilius Lovegood had always insisted that it had just had something to do with some rare phase of the moon his daughter was born under, hence naming her Luna.

While they were waiting for the download to complete, the quartet regaled Ganthet with a more or less full accounting of their battle against Eclipso. "Maleagant always did have a problem with his ego," he said with a shake of his head.

"We have finished downloading our databases into the crystals here," Jor-El's image finally announced after a while, "But I have to question why they were blank. Whoever left this here must have had some access to a database to leave."

"That will be explained soon," Ganthet said, "As I told young Ronald and Neville, I've been 'haunting', as you call it, the castle for the past 1000 years and yes, I knew the ones you know to be the Founders."

"Know to be?" Harry asked, "Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, and Helga Hufflepuff weren't really the Founders of Hogwarts?"

"Oh, they were," Ganthet said, "But they were only the public ones most because of Kryptonian law pertaining to visitors here and because most humans were particularly xenophobic at the time, being what you call the Dark Ages and all.

"However, there were in fact 7 Founders of Hogwarts and I am proud to be one of them," Ganthet said, "There were also 2 Kryptonians named Mera Sal-Van and Flam-El, who were the keys to building the castle in the short time they did."

"Wow, so Flam-El was a Founder as well as the warden of the Phantom Zone," Harry said, "So not only are Ginny… and Ron and the other Weasleys… and her friends Heirs of the human Founders, but Luna and I are the descendants of the Kryptonian ones as well?"

Ganthet nodded. "That is correct, Kal-El," he said.

"Harry," Harry corrected, "Please call me Harry."

"Luna, but how do you know Harry's Kryptonian name?" Luna asked.

"I apologize then, Harry, and you might be surprised what all I can hear down here, Luna," Ganthet said, "But that's beside the point. Flam-El and Mera did most of the building of the castle while I helped the human Founders make the plans.

"They let me create these catacombs to call my home as thanks for my help and also charged me with keeping an eye on Maleagant," Ganthet continued, "Though I didn't really spend that much time down here alive."

"But before I died, I showed them the plans for the Lantern rings," Ganthet said, "And they pounced on the idea. Flam-El and Mera donated crafted them out of the same crystal-like substance that lines the walls of this chamber, so you'll never have to worry about damaging them as Kryptonian crafted crystal is as nigh indestructible as they are.

"Once they were crafted," Ganthet said, "I used the power my people to tie them into inter-dimensional power sources. But for the rings to work, they had to be bonded to both the planet their champions were on as well as the basic genetic structure of the race dominating that planet, which the Founders allowed us to do using their base DNA."

"But I'm not a Founders Heir, so how can I use 1?" Neville asked.

"As far as I know I'm afraid you're not, but you also don't have to be to use a ring," Ganthet explained, "We only used the markers in their DNA that would bond the rings to humans in general and not just to any of their bloodlines. You getting one of them was just an amazing coincidence, Ronald."

"What about Eclipso?" Neville asked, "His power seemed a lot like those rings."

"Only in a manner of speaking," Ganthet said, "There was a lot of raw energy leftover that we assumed would dissipate. However, we later found out that Salazar's son, Maleagant, later absorbed it. I always thought it was unknowingly, but from your accounts of the battle, I now think something else tricked him into doing so.

"Either way, the energy slowly corrupted him, eventually causing him to lose his physical form," Ganthet said, "And as you've found out, it also allowed him to take over the minds of any human that had some hidden… darkness in them, for lack of a better term.

"When we found out, we confronted him but found him to be nearly invincible to everything but light," Ganthet said, "Just as you did tonight, we were able to create a bright enough light to make him go into the vault.

"Salazar then reluctantly used his Parseltongue ability to lock in such a way only one of his direct descendants could open," Ganthet said, "But he had no way of knowing a Kryptonian with such a… unique way of obtaining power such as you, Harry, would accidentally set him free. Don't worry about that, by the way. It was just a matter of time before he had gotten out."

Harry nodded. "I'll try," he promised, "Is that when you died?"

"I'm sorry, but that's a tale you're not quite ready for," Ganthet said, "But getting back to your original questions about why this is Kryptonian and why the crystals are blank, before they left, Flam-El and Mera were given a prophecy that would tell of the last born children of Krypton coming to Earth and needing a place away from prying eyes to save the world.

"I gave them permission to make this little hideaway and they used then burgeoning crystal-based technology to make your world-saving tasks easier," Ganthet continued, "The crystals themselves are blank because it was forbidden to bring actual Kryptonian history such as that to Earth in case it fell into the hands of humans."

"Well, we've just finished taking care of that," Jor-El said, bringing everyone's attention to the crystal displays. "This is so much more than just empty places in the crystal for the database. We have something that can replicate just about anything we want or even alter just about anything.

"It is also tied into all known news broadcasts, both magical and non-magical, so that we can keep track of anything bad and communicate with you so you can do something about it once you're ready to start realizing your destinies," Jor-El said.

"Speaking of communicating with you, please place your mirrors on the tray indicated and the device Miss Vasquez sent you, Harry," Jor-El said and a small tray glowed for a moment.

They did as the AI guardian directed and put their mirrors on the tray and Harry also placed the SAT phone Yoli had sent him not long, curious on what they were going to do to it. The tray and the devices glowed for several seconds.

"We can now contact you as easily as you contact each other," Jor-El finished, "I've even changed that phone to send an update to the others that will tie them into our network, making them absolutely infallible

"I think we can even create a teleportation device to bring you here, though we'd need a house elf to put it together for us," Jor-El continued, "That way, we can bring you here without Ron or Neville draining their rings. Something similar was used on Krypton before its destruction and I think I can duplicate it."

"And two of us should be able to finish it even faster," Lana pointed out. Jor-El nodded.

"Wait a minute, you're staying here?" Harry interjected, "But I thought you were supposed to stay with me? What about all of our late night talks and the stories of Krypton you promised?"

"Talking through the mirrors will be any different than you simply activating my disk, would it," Jor-El asked, "It's just that I can do so much being here getting a headquarters set up for when you eventually want to branch out and be a full-fledged superhero. We'll need some help of course, so please ask the Headmaster if he can loan us a house elf."

It made sense so Harry nodded. "If Dobby still wants to be under my employ, I'll send him this way," he promised, "He'll be glad to help you put together anything you want." Jor-El and Lana nodded.

"I've got a question before we leave," Ron interjected, turning to Ganthet. "The other 5 rings… are any of them evil?"

"The rings themselves are neither good nor evil with the exception of the Indigo ring," Ganthet said, "Its power source is the emotion of compassion itself, making it inherently good as it fuels their instinct to help others. Even if the people they help are evil, the intentions of the Indigo champion are good no matter what.

"The other rings can be used for good or evil, including your own," Ganthet said, "You've seen what strong hope and faith the Blue light embodies can do from the wars your world has waged and the Green willpower isn't just exclusive to someone with a good heart such as yours, Ronald.

"While the Violet light of love is generally considered a good or at least neutral emotion, many evil things have been in its name," Ganthet said, "On the other side of the coin, the ability to instill fear that the Yellow light embodies is generally thought to be an evil emotion, but many superheroes also do good using the same skill."

"The Orange light of avarice is the only one of these 6 that is almost certain to be evil because it embodies jealousy and greed, but in its case, evil is a relative term," Ganthet said, "It will most likely seek out a perpetual thief, who'll be even more compelled to steal things, which even included lives if any try to stand in their way."

"And finally, the Red light of rage can be focused and used against those who would commit evil as easily as not," Ganthet said, "You just have to remember that good and evil are relative terms for the most part. It all depends on the intentions of the champion that wields any given ring." They nodded.

"So, how can we get a hold of you?" Harry asked.

"Ronald and Neville will always be able to contact me through the rings," Ganthet said.

It wasn't long after that when the young heroes headed back up to the main part of the castle, with Ron and Neville teleporting them back to the Loo. Unbeknownst to them, Ganthet also left.

Ganthet appeared in a small hut not far from Hogwarts. "Just thought you'd like to know it's over, old friend," he said to a figure sitting by a fire a few feet away, "Ronald and Neville embraced their destinies as champions of their Lanterns and helped Harry and Luna defeat Maleagant and imprison him once again."

"It is good that they defeated Maleagant, but I don't know if it's going to be enough," the figure said, then sighed and turned towards Ganthet, revealing himself to be Dumbledore. He seemed exhausted and looked even older than usual.

"I can feel him gathering strength," Dumbledore said, "We've been lucky to defeat his servants so far, but something's coming… something bad. I have retained enough of my former life that I can foresee that much, but even I can't see exactly what it is."

Ganthet nodded. "I feel it too," he said, "But there's nothing we can do since I'm dead and you are still bound by the old rules that you cannot directly interfere no matter what form you take. We have to have faith that the heroes of this world will be enough to turn him away as he has been before."

Dumbledore nodded. "I will head back to Hogwarts and help with the fallout," he said, "The heroes of Hogwarts need to work in secrecy for now or they'll never be able to rally the people of the world in the end. Earthlings are still almost as xenophobic today as they were in your time with the Founders. But there is hope."

"There is always hope no matter how grim the situation," Ganthet agreed, then smiled. "You could just ask Neville about that." The two shared a laugh for a moment before sobering. "I have a feeling this is the last time we'll meet, so I will say that it's been a pleasure to know you in both your original form and this one."

"As it has been mine…" Something came out of Dumbledore's mouth that sounded like gibberish but apparently Ganthet could understand it as he nodded before leaving the old wizard to simply stare into the fire a while longer before leaving.

"I hope I'll see you again," Moaning Myrtle said, then smiled suggestively at Harry. "Especially you, Harry. I want you to know that when you die, you'll always be welcome to haunt my u-bend."

"Um, thank you, Myrtle," Harry said, trying to keep his face from turning red, especially when the others gave him knowing grins. "I'll… keep that in mind. As for coming back, the best I can say is we'll see." Moaning Myrtle nodded as the 4 headed out of the Loo and headed to the Headmaster's office.

They headed to the Hospital Wing first as the last they had known, that was where Ginny and the other followers of Eclipso were heading. Once they got there and went inside, a certain brown haired blur came rushing towards them and nearly tackled Harry with a big hug.

"Oh Merlin, you don't know how glad I am to see you up and about, Hermione," Harry murmured into Hermione's wild head of hair. 'She may smell like crap for lying in the bed for months, but she feels so good… I never want to let her go again,' he thought.

Unbeknownst to him, Harry had murmured this aloud, though only loud enough for Hermione to hear it. Her eyes widened for a second but she acted like she didn't hear it as she pulled away. "I can't believe you did it," she murmured, "Or that I wasn't much help."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Ron said, "Are you sure you didn't have one of those out of body experiences and possess Harry? Because he sure seemed to be hell-bent on researching this as you probably would have every waking minute he wasn't at your bedside."

"Yeah, I probably found out more in the last couple of days than I will in the rest of my time at Hogwarts," Harry admitted.

"Good for you," Hermione said, kissing Harry on the cheek and causing him to blush madly.

Hermione gave a hug to the other 3 except for Ron, who insisted on just shaking hands. "Don't get me wrong, Hermione, because I'm glad to see you but frankly…" He hesitated.

"You reek," Luna interjected.

When the others reluctantly nodded, Hermione laughed before shrugging. "I'll have a nice long soak in a bath later," she promised, "But right now, we should be focusing on what to do next."

"Agreed Miss Granger," a voice said from behind them. The group turned to find the Headmaster and most of the teaching staff joining them inside the entrance of the hospital ward. Dumbledore waved Madam Pomfrey over. "Is everyone here showing any ill effects from what has happened?"

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "Not that I can see," she explained, "No one but Miss Weasley even remember being possessed."

"Possessed?" McGonagall asked, "By what?"

"That is something we'll have to discuss somewhere more private," Dumbledore insisted, "So if you 5 would gather Miss Weasley and join us in my office, we'll do that."

"5?" Hermione asked, "But I don't remember what happened either."

"While that's true, I would imagine Mr. Potter isn't going to willingly let you out of his sight for quite a while and I just thought I'd head off that argument," Dumbledore replied, his eyes twinkling. Harry and Hermione both turned red at the suggestion. They quickly got Ginny and they all headed to the Headmaster's office.

Once they got there, they were quick to give them an edited version of the tale, but when telling them how they defeated Eclipso, they related how they had simply had to strike him with the _Lumos_ spell to get him to retreat into his original diamond, then got that off Ginny's forehead and sealed it in the vault.

Most of the staff questioned this, but Dumbledore put them at ease saying that he trusted the group to tell him the truth before dismissing them. The next day, he subtly called them back into his office and they told him the full unfettered version of it and let him take strands of memories pertaining to the battle.

"I'll have one set altered to show the version you told the others," Dumbledore explained, "That way, it'll be on record but your secrets will also be safe. I know someone that can flawlessly alter them who's willing to let clients _Obliviate_ him afterwards."

"That's what you did last year, right?" Harry asked. Dumbledore nodded. "So, how are you back anyway? I thought you were still suspended from your job. Couldn't you get in trouble for trespassing?"

"Ah yes, Lucius thought that as well," Dumbledore said, "Imagine his surprise when I called an emergency meeting of the Board of Governors, a right a Headmaster has even when they're on suspension, after finding out that he had bribed and threatened the others into signing the order of suspension."

Dumbledore dismissed the group and they headed to Ravenclaw tower to drop Luna off. "Oh I've been meaning to thank you," Harry said to Luna, "That chunk of metal you or your dad loaned Dumbledore over the summer literally saved my life. Was it from your ship?"

"I'm sorry, but what chunk of metal?" Luna asked, "Mum and dad had the ship self-destruct the night they found me, just as I'm guessing Uncle James and Aunt Lily did yours. Except for my database, I never saw any kind of Kryptonian technology before tonight."

Harry nodded. 'Just another mystery about Dumbledore I suppose,' he thought. "Never mind," he said, "I guess we'll see you later… cuz." Luna couldn't help but smile before nodding and skipping off towards the portrait hole.

"Hey, Ginny," a voice called. They turned and found John, Blaise, and Jessica watching them. "Can we talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure," Ginny replied before she turned to Harry and the others. "I'll see you at Gryffindor tower later, all right?" Without waiting for a response, she headed towards her group of friends. "Hey, what's up?"

"We were just wondering… what do you remember about being possessed by that… thing?" Jessica asked

"Unfortunately, I remember it all," Ginny said, "And I am so sorry for coming after you guys. I tried to fight against it, but Eclipso was just too powerful."

"You don't need to worry about that at all," Blaise murmured softly, "We know you couldn't help that Eclipso used you to come after us and most of the school, though it does bring up an interesting question. I've just been wondering why he targeted us first."

Ginny was about to answer when John interrupted. "Actually, I found that out right before he got the drop on me," he said, "I was working on a genealogy side-project for History of Magic and found that all 4 of us are the direct descendants of the Founders."

"That would explain a lot," Jessica said, "I don't know about you all, but I almost felt… drawn to you guys and I was so glad when you were willing to overlook my… affliction. I've never found anyone that could do that."

"Hey, you will never have to worry about that with us," John said.

"Yes, as long as you don't hold it against me that I'm the descendent of Salazar Slytherin, there's no way I can hold something that you can't control against you either," Blaise pointed out.

"Not only will we always be friends," Ginny agreed, "But I can also think of another group that will accept your friendship no matter what." She pointedly glanced in the direction of Harry and his friends, who were still just in eyesight.

"Maybe," Jessica said, "But that's a discussion for another time. So… same place, same time tomorrow?" The others nodded before going their separate ways.

Dumbledore put out a story that the quartet had been able to defeat Maleagant by using a focused version of the Lumos spell they had been taught in Charms on the diamonds on the foreheads of his followers as well as driving the entity back into his prison, which they had been able to find using blueprints in a book he had in his private collection.

The Quidditch tournament went on as planned and of course Gryffindor cleaned house and won the Cup for the second year in a row. The Duel Club also picked back up. Harry was barely able to beat Hermione in 2nd Year singles match but she got him back when her and Neville won the Doubles and all 4 had easily won the Quad category.

Also during that time, Harry and Luna also had long talks about being cousins, including how she had her powers but without the side-effects, the answers to which they found out from the AI guardian of her database disk.

It turned out that her aunt Lara had sent her father the blueprints for the rocket Jor-El was building so he could evacuate his daughter as well as the method of getting rid of the genetic engineering and replacing them with the new evolution powers.

Zor-Van had been unable to give Luna the evolution powers Harry had because of a small genetic defect from her mother's side, but he had been able to use it to alter the genetic engineering to rid her of the harmful side effects and still be able to obtain her basic range of powers naturally.

At Harry's inquiry of how Luna could use magic, the AI had explained that ever since the traditional trip to Earth in his youth, Zor-Van had been working on a way to artificially tap into its magical field and implanted it within her in order to help her blend in better.

It was the next day that they noticed Lockhart missing from the DADA classes and the staff table and then, everyone got a surprise in the form of the _Daily Prophet_ on the House boards that read:

"_**Famous" author found to be a fraud!**_

_By Rita Skeeter_

_It was recently found out supposed world-renown author and adventurer, Gilderoy Lockhart, had been not only embellishing on the adventures detailed in his many books, but had been doing so illegally by Obliviating Aurors that had been the actual heroes, thus resulting in him being charged with Perversion the course of justice among other things._

_One such Auror had heard stories and kept his memories backed up into a recording device on himself so it would keep up to date at all times hidden and Lockhart where wouldn't find it, with instructions to use it immediately upon finding it._

_While it had taken some time for them to find it, the Healers at St. Mungo's did so, asked for the others in the set containing his life, and following the instructions, they were able to override the memory charm by reversing the runes on the device, allowing the memories to flow back into the Auror's mind, including that of the one who had Obliviated him._

_Unfortunately, this was a special case here in Britain as the other Aurors here hadn't had the foresight to back up their memories as well and Lockhart is only facing a relatively minimal amount of time in prison time in Azkaban._

_But while Perversion of justice can't be proved beyond the one case here, he also seems to be guilty of many cases of rape after it was found that many women, both magical and Muggle, have given birth to children later proven to be his that also had signs of memory tampering. This tacked on at least another decade to his sentence._

_However, even after he's finished with the prison sentences here, Lockhart is also facing extradition to countries with much stricter laws and punishment systems, so it can be assumed he will spend most of the rest of his life in one prison or other._

_As a show of good faith, his former publishing company, _Triquetra Press_, responded by guaranteeing that they would not only refund any of Lockhart's books that had been sold, most notably as a mandatory booklist of Hogwarts after he joined the staff there, but would also offer free copies of other books that they have published, which have been proven to be 100% accurate. _

"Bet that's good news to many families," Harry muttered, "Those stupid books cost a small fortune. But enough about this crap…" He turned back to his friends. "What say we head down to breakfast?" They all laughed as Ron nodded enthusiastically before he practically ran for the portrait hole.

The day before the last Feast of the year, Professor McGonagall took Harry and Hermione aside and told them that once again they were 2nd and 1st in their class respectively, something that brought a smile to the latter's face.

The feast came and went quickly and they headed out to the boat house first to help Ginny and Luna into theirs before taking the carriages to the Hogsmeade station. After putting their trunks in the pile with the rest of the students, they boarded and found a compartment, while the 1st Year redhead went to find her friends.

Not too long into the trip, not wanting to feel like a fifth wheel, Hermione decided to take a walk through the train. She was a little miffed that the others barely seemed to take notice as they were all chatting about their powers.

Hermione had already walked the length of the train and was heading back when she saw a weird glowing light that seemed to compel her to follow it. She did and found herself in a small compartment, where a pinkish ring like Ron and Neville's was floating in midair, which she reached out and grabbed.

"You have great love in your heart," a soft voice murmured softly from the door.

Startled, Hermione spun around to find Ganthet watching her. "You scared me," she said.

"I apologize, Miss Granger," Ganthet said.

"You're Ganthet, right?" Hermione asked. Ganthet nodded. She looked down at the ring in her hand. "And this is one of those rings Ron and Neville set loose?" He nodded again. "Why did it choose me?"

"It was drawn to you because of the great love within your heart," Ganthet repeated, "Your unrequited love for Mr. Potter, to be exact." He smiled when Hermione blushed and vehemently tried to deny it and raised a hand to stop her. "Do not try to deny it. I can see into your heart as easily as the Star Sapphire does."

"Star Sapphire?" Hermione asked and her brow furrowed in confusion, "I thought it was going to be called the Pink Lantern or something."

"While the others stuck to basic named such as those," Ganthet said, "Rowena Ravenclaw gave your power source its name because of her fondness for sapphires and because of her love for Astronomy and based the design on artistic renderings of a star."

"And it'll give me powers like them?" Hermione asked.

Ganthet nodded. "Though what they will be dependent on your subconscious," he added.

At that, Hermione didn't hesitate before sliding the ring on her finger at his behest, she opened the secret compartment and took the jewel inside, enlarged it, put it on the floor, and held her ring inches from it. "_For hearts long lost and full of fright, for those alone in the blackest night, accept your ring and join our fight. Love conquers all… with violet light_!" she chanted.

At the completion of her oath, Hermione's body slowly became enveloped in a pinkish light. It dissipated quickly once it encompassed her and she gave a little "Eep" as she looked down at her costume.

Though it was armored like Ron and Neville's, Hermione's costume was extremely revealing, barely covering her breasts and dipping down into a V just above her waistline. Twin silvery bracelets where on either of her wrists and a long lasso-like rope of energy was hanging from her waist. She reached up at an unfamiliar weight on her head to find a tiara sitting on it.

It was then that Hermione noticed that she appeared to be several feet taller and when she looked in a nearby mirror, she was surprised to find that her hair was much longer and straighter and that her face looked older, like she probably would as a teen.

"Interesting," Ganthet murmured, "It would seem that instead of linking your ring with Ronald and Neville's, your love for Harry linked you with him instead, giving you his 2 most basic powers of superhuman strength and invulnerability.

"Also, your need to find truth as well as justice created the lasso at your waist, which is laced with a Veritaserum like effect that will not allow anyone ensnared in it to tell a lie," Ganthet said, "You also have the ability of flight as Ronald and Neville do."

Hermione grinned. "This is perfect," she murmured, "With this, I can become his equal when I need to be. But you said my ring isn't linked with Ron's or Neville's. Does that mean I won't get some benefit in being in close proximity to them as they do with each other? Also, can they detect my ring? I'd rather keep this a secret for now."

Ganthet shrugged. "You can link with Neville's, but there's no way to tell what effects it will have until you find out," he said, "And I believe the ring has cast the false image over you to keep anyone from finding out who you are so I believe that as long as you don't use your ring near them in your normal form, they won't be able to find out."

Hermione nodded as she dispelled the image. "So, will I see you again?" she asked.

"You will be able to communicate to me through your ring," Ganthet said.

"I'll remember that, but right now I need to get back to my friends," Hermione said.

"Then I will be looking forward to talking to you another time, Hermione," Ganthet said and with that, he disappeared. With a last look at her ring and a grin, Hermione headed back to her friends.

The end… for now, anyway…

Disclaimers and Author's Note: I do not own Supergirl, Green Lantern and his multi-colored counterparts, or Ganthet. They're owned by DC Comics, Warner Brothers, possibly the family of Jerry Siegel in the former case, and I'm not sure who all else. See Chapters 1 and 4 for the rest. While these additions are permanent ones to the Disclaimers, this isn't the part I've been omitting from the beginning as that was all part of the original idea and this was just what I came up with while writing this story with the exception of Supergirl, as I had always intended Luna to fill that role and planned to add it here. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed the series so far and until next time, _Pueda el solitario Dios La Paz por ultimo_.


	6. Author's note

SPOILER WARNING! If you want to avoid that, go back to Chapter 5.

Author's notes

I thought I'd have the Author's notes from end of Chapter 5 so that it could be about the story itself. I left the one before the chapters because it's there in response to Reviews and the one at the end was there to make necessary additions to the Disclaimers and they didn't take up much room. First off, sorry for leaving it as I did, but I feel that the welcome waiting for the group after they got off the Hogwarts Express was better off starting the next part in the series with as it really kicks off the mystery behind Remus' disappearance as well as something that else that takes place during the summer between Years 2 and 3.

Anyway, I'll soon be putting up my spinoffs _The Justice Crusade_ and _Each night, I dream of Krypton_. I'm waiting until I get to a specific point in both series before I start the next story as a chapter in the former will overlap into the summer between the two years and the latter will be hints at something major in Year 3. When I come back, I'm going to be expanding the story of this to include Ginny and her friends. I was originally going to wait until later (though that was mostly before I decided to write them into this one), but I was looking for a way to drastically lengthen my stories and thought bringing them in would do so.

I've also been making a few mostly cosmetic changes to the series, starting with the addition of the standard Elseworlds starting with the beginning of _Phantom Relic_. I've also changed the names (most notably the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team) of a few minor characters in order to make them major ones in _The Justice Crusade_. I've also decided on a designation for my version of the DCU. I was going to give it a designation not currently in use or not bother like DC does with most Elseworlds stories, but as I was looking through the listings of the 52verse (the reintroduced DC multiverse revealed the 52 series, not the "New 52 DCU" that just started), I found that this being my version of Earth-33 makes a bit more sense since it has magic-based variations of the heroes or at least most of them in the case of this series.

No offense, Xero, but I can't believe you caught on to Luna being Kara Zor-Van (made her a maternal cousin for her to have a database disk as well). The "cousin" reference I made during her Sorting aside, I thought I'd kept a tight lid on it. All sulking (and subsequent joking) aside, great catch though. I'm curious if anybody that figured out the identity of Maleagant Slytherin, aka Eclipso, especially after the somewhat major clue with his reaction when he enthralled Blaise. Him being Salazar's son means that there were actually 2 Heirs of Slytherins in this story: Blaise, who will fulfill the main prophecy of the Heirs and Maleagant, who fulfills the pureblood's version of it.

I'm also guessing that the revelation of Ganthet being the titled "Ghost" wasn't a big surprise and once you figured that out, it didn't take much to guess I was bringing in the various colored Lantern rings and especially that I was giving Ron, Neville, and Hermione each 1. As suggested, only 7 of the 9 canon rings will appear. White and Black won't, though not only could Eclipso could almost (but not quite) be considered to be the sole member of the Black Lantern Corps, that and the fact that he obviously wasn't working on his own also throws in another interesting possibility on who might behind it all… Nekron. Is the "Lord of the dead" behind it all? As always, all I can say is that only time will tell.

As Ganthet said, there won't be any full-fledged Corps for any of the ring colors for reasons stated. And his origin is supposed to be more like how "Emerald Twilight" ended than any real connection to Superman's origin. I'll go into detail about how and why his people were wiped out at some (much) later point. Speaking of them being Lanterns, Ron's costume is like the one Kyle used from the end of Issue #51 until he became Ion and again briefly when he was possessed by Parallax while Neville is like the one St. Walker wears except that both have the armored look from the movie. I don't know if you all liked them, but I obviously thought they were pretty badass so they're in.

Anyway, what'd you think about the interaction between Dumbledore and Ganthet? All I can say is that it's just the newest piece of the puzzle that is the mystery surrounding the identity of the "true" (as is often the case in the comics, that term is of course only relevant to any given situation) evil mastermind of the series. It also was put in as a means to throwing in yet another mystery that is this Dumbledore. He didn't get that chunk of Kryptonian metal from Luna or her dad, so where could he have gotten it? All I can say is that he did not get it from the chamber Ganthet and the rings were in as he didn't have access and it's almost all crystal-based technology anyway.

As for Hermione, I was going to leave her getting the Star Sapphire and using it to pretty much become my version of Wonder Woman as well for a surprise to you readers and characters, but after I wrote that bit about Eclipso's reaction when put her into a comatose state I knew it was pretty much impossible. And I'm sorry if you don't like her being a Wonder Woman/Star Sapphire mix, but while I wanted her to just be the former, I didn't want to get into a whole origin story that goes along with that, so once I decided to throw in all the Lantern colors, I figured tying Wonder Woman powers into the Star Sapphire would make sense because of her unrequited love for Harry given how it works.

The backstory about how Luna has magic and the basic range of Kryptonian powers without the side effects was only skimmed over now, but if anybody's interested in a more or less full version of the story, it'll be fully explore in _Each night, I dream of Krypton_. I would have given her evolution powers like Harry, but I wanted to give him something that made him unique and frankly her personality is unique as it is, so I made her an only slightly modified version of Supergirl. I'm sorry if that sounds sexist, but please believe that I don't mean it to be that way. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed the series so far and until next time, _Pueda el solitario Dios La Paz por ultimo_.


	7. AN 2 and a cry for help

Author's note 2

You'll notice that I have yet to put up anything for _The Justice Crusade_ and unfortunately, there's a reason for that. Don't get me wrong, I am doing it but I've barely started and I've already realized that I'm biting off way more than I can chew trying to create a whole new variation of the DC universe by myself.

Hell, even DC themselves has teams of writers for each series and I'm an idiot for thinking that I could do it by myself, therefore I'm putting out a call to anybody that's willing to help me create this new DCU based in the HP-verse.

If you're willing to help, send me a message at (not in Reviews though, as that would spoil things for anybody not taking part in this). As you might have noticed the first time I uploaded this I apparently can't leave my email address or I'd say send it to me through there. Sorry.

You will have your pick of any heroes from DC Comics (though as I said with the denial of an official placement for Captain America, please stick with either estrablished DC characters or make up a new one) that haven't been introduced so far (Harry/Superman, Ron/Green Lantern, Hermione/Star Sapphire/Wonder Woman, Neville/Blue Lantern/Ray Palmer Atom, and Yoli/Flash) as well a few I'll tell you about when I get back to you as to avoid spoilers here.

Other than that, the sky's the limit. You can write about however many heroes (and we can even do another centered around villains if we want) you feel comfortable with, but trust me when I say that you don't want take on too many, though something good should hopefully come out of it in this case.

You will get full credit of course. In fact, I'll even create a second account on to publish the series under a pseudonym that we'll all decide on that will have mail-to links to each individual author place on the main profile page.

There's only one rule I can think of: You can't use anybody else's characters without their permission. That being said, I give all of my cowriters permission to use any of my characters (even including Harry and his friends, though not at first) especially Yoli since she's going to be the main recruiter.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me and especially thanks in advance for any help I get and as always, _Pueda el solitario Dios encuentra la paz por ultimo_.


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